LM Preston

Exiled by Rashelle Workman

2012-01-29T12:33:00.001-08:00

NYIA! Our Teen Book Reviewer is in the house. *Sniffle* and she's started her own blog. They grow up so fast, but she's agreed to still post her reviews here as a guest.

Amazon Blurb:
EXILED: Worlds divided them. Chance brought them together, Only love will save them.

BUY HERE - Click

NYIA's Review:

I really loved this book so I thought I’d tell some people about it’s amazingness. The author did a great job of making a simple science fiction novel. I liked that the book didn’t have a bunch of complicated language or super long explanations about nothing. The book was filled with adventure, secrets, and romance, keeping the reader on the edge of their seat. The concepts introduced in the book weren’t hard to understand or keep up with. I liked that the author wrote the book in various two points of view, but focused mainly on Venus. I would recommend the book to girls who want romance with more action in it. I suspect that the book is the first in a series because it ended with a lot of unanswered questions. I give the book a 4 out of 5 only because I was mad about love triangle going on. Hope you decide to read it; it’s really a good book.

Teens Can Plan For Success

2012-01-26T03:53:00.000-08:00

This week at my kid's high school they are selecting their schedule of courses. Not to mention, I watched Waiting For Superman, a movie about the school system and how inaffective it is for supporting the majority of students in their journey to personal successful learning.

I fight the battle of motivating my kids to be challenged, to figure out ways around boundaries and to stay positively motivated to do their heart's desire.

But it's been hard. I've had to teach them to fight for their education as well.

IF YOU ARE SERVED APPLES but you want ORANGES

My 9th grader is an acceptional student. She always scores high on test and with me fighting for her she was placed in the Gifted and Talented courses. But she wants more.

AP courses were offered to her this year, but I think outside of the box in everything and I wanted her to forego AP courses and just go direct to Community College to take some of her classes - and I found out from taking my daughter to the counselor at the community college that she could take classes at the community college that could go towards her High School diploma while giving her credit for her degree!

So we asked her High School Counselor to approve my daughter's registration. The woman told me "I don't know why you would want to waste your money on that when she can just take AP classes"

DON't LET 'NO' stop YOU! FIND A WORK AROUND

I couldn't believe the woman was discouraging me in supporting my daughter with MY MONEY. Had I not known that it was possible to send a student in this direction (I had done the exact same thing for my son - and had to fight even harder to do so) then I would have just agreed with the woman.

BUT I will take a "No" and create my own "Yes"

TEENS HAVE POWER

One thing I told my daughter when we left was, "You can do or be anything, and that is a lesson that the road won't always be easy. You always need to look for your detors."

HOW HAVE YOU as a young person TURNED a 'NO' into a 'YES' by not giving up?

Explorer X-Beta is now on KDP and Amazon!

2012-01-24T09:08:00.000-08:00

I'm excited to announce that my second book in the my middle grade science fiction adventure novel, is available for FREE in ebook kindle format on KINDLE DIRECT and only $0.99 on amazon until release day of the Paperback version April 1st.

The paperback release date is April 1st and will be kicked off with a twitter party TWITTER PARTY is April 3rd, 2012 and BLOG TOUR the week of April 8th-17th.

LM Preston Tour and Stops:

Farpoint Convention (Baltimore, MD) 2/17-19th
Public Library Conference (PA) - 3/12th
Twitter Launch Party (Promo Explorer X-Beta) - 4/3th
Explorer X-Beta Blog tour - 4/8-17th
Book Expo America (NY) - 6/6-7th
Otakon (Baltimore, MD) 7/27-29th
Shore-Leave (Baltimore, MD) 8/3-5th
Baltimore Book Festival - 9/28-30th
Capclave (Baltimore, MD) - 10/12-14th

Weekly on Twitter:
#MBPA twitter chat on Thursdays at 9pm hosting as board member of Mid Atlantic Book Publishers Association www.midatlanticbookpublishers.com
#Yalitchat twitter chat on Wednesday as Moderator and support of Yalitchat.ning.com

Underworld Awakening - Movie Review

2012-01-22T14:46:00.000-08:00

Fandango Blurb:
In the years since she and her human-lycan lover, Michael, defeated Elder Marcus, vampire warrior Selene (Kate Beckinsale) has been taken captive by humans, while they wage an all-out war against both lycans and vampires. Awakening after more than a decade, Selene discovers that Michael is dead, but that she has given birth to his daughter, Eve. Shunned by nearly all surviving vampires, save one (Theo James), even Selene seems powerless against her latest opponent: a genetically enhanced lycan.

My Review:
Action Overload with just enough of a plot to tease you. I have to admit it, I'm a lover of the Underworld movies series. They have vamps that don't count on their 'sexy' to get them a kill and lycans that make me want to run and hide in the theatre. A sprinkle of romance laced the earlier movies but there's no time for love in this one only a few touching lovey moments. This was 100% action, killing and vamp vs lycan war. This was so fast paced I didn't even realize the ride was over until the end. And Selene (Kate Beckingsale) kicked but like before and I loved it. Not much bloodsucking in this one, but a lot of fighting, shooting and blowing stuff up. I give it 4 out of 5 stars because again there was little plot and I'm a vamp and lycan lover that loves action.

Discovering A Hidden Muse

2012-01-18T12:44:00.000-08:00

If you are a writer, dreamer, actor, artist of any sort then you are always looking deeper. Studying people, trying to connect with something or someone that will allow you to create.

As a writer I like to study people. Never take anyone for granted since you can't figure out a persons life journey by just looking at their faces.

Well this weekend I discovered something about one of my kids that I'd missed.

SAY WHAT? IS THAT MY KID?

Parents usually seem to make assumptions about their kids without actually studying them. Getting to know them. Know what makes them ticked.

Well this weekend I learned something about my 8yr old that I've taken for granted. Only because the kid is always around me.

HE's A SHOW HOUND

While in Downtown Disney, my oldest son (17yr old) started dancing. My 8yr old copied his dance moves, but about 5 minutes into their duo and a large crowd later,my 8yr stole the show. I didn't even know this kid could dance like this. He did break-dancing, flips, and moves he'd been watching on several Dance Crew shows and the boy actually absorbed it all. He had a huge crowd and my mouth was hung opened because I so didn't know this kid!

TRANSFORM IT INTO YOUR ART

The writer in me just soaked it in - after my tongue made it's way back in my mouth. And I tucked that knowledge away to put into one of my characters to come. That little something that gives them a ZING, BOP ... and makes the reader cheer for them.

REALITY TO ART

That's what writers need to continue to do. Find time to get out and discover people - discover your art. And have fun too!

Don't be afraid.

SO HAVE YOU FOUND A HIDDEN MUSE? Where? Do Tell...

Warriors Omen of the Stars by Erin Hunter

2012-01-16T20:27:00.000-08:00

Hello ya'll my new Middle Grade Book Reviewer - MIA is here to give a review of a series she absolutely loves!!

The Warriors Series by Erin Hunter

Warriors: Omen Of the Stars

Amazon Blurb:

Four warrior Clans have shared the land around the lake as equals for many moons. But a prophecy foretells that three ThunderClan cats will hold the power of the stars in their paws. Jayfeather and Lionblaze know that they are two of the cats in the prophecy. Now the brothers must wait for a sign from StarClan to discover the identity of the third cat.

Meanwhile, Dovekit and Ivykit—kin of the great leader Firestar—are poised to become ThunderClan apprentices. Soon one sister will have an ominous dream—and will begin to realize that she possesses mystical skills unmatched by any other cat.

In the midst of a cruel season that threatens the lives of all four warrior Clans, bonds will be forged, promises made, and three young cats will start to unravel the secrets that bind them together.

MIA's Review (5th Grader)

First of all, I love animals. I wanted to read a book about them and I found the Warriors series at the library. I can't stop reading them. When I read it I like that I can see the story like a cat would see it. The adventure was about helping the ancestors. It makes me think of the cats like sort of an tribe. They close family and I really got attached to Dovepaw and Jayfeather.

I liked the first two series the most. But haven't read all of them yet. Every one of these books have cats that have a great adventure.

PARENT Review (by LM Preston)

My 5th grader wasn't always a reader. She loved graphic novels but would shy away from chapter books. Until we found a series of books of topics that interested her - animals. She loves animals and this series seems to wet her appetite. This series is more for a upper middle grader, but I read it with my daughter and she did well with it.

I've Been Inspired!

2012-01-10T19:30:00.000-08:00

The beginning of the year I was exhausted. And started to think, maybe kicking out three manuscripts was a tall order. Maybe, I didn't want to write for a small while. You know take a break, evaluate if this is something I need to keep doing - for myself.

INSPIRATION COMES IN THE MOST OBVIOUS PLACES

Then my 10yr old daughter came to me with her manuscript - YEP, she had written five full pages of her story. She loves animals and wrote a story about a baby lion named Theo who wanted to unite the species of his land.

OMG! This is why I write - not just for me, but for myself and others. My little girl told me, "I want to write like you mommy. Maybe you can help me with my story."

MORE ... and MORE

Then I get an email from one of my writer friends, telling me she needs me to motivate her to finish her book.

MORE and MORE

Then it came ... another idea for a series. And the promise to my little girl to help her write her story.

AND IT BEGINS AGAIN ... inspiration

FIND Yours ... and share :-D

The Dead and The Enemy by Charles Higson

2012-01-08T19:10:00.000-08:00

My teenaged son is a Zombie addict. Not to mention and action junky. And Charles Higson delivers - BIG TIME in these two books of his 3 part series.

Read THE DEAD (pre-qual to The Enemy) first even though it was written after THE ENEMY.

BUY IT HERE

Goodreads Blurb:
This second entry in Charlie Higson's terrifying series about children battling zombie grown-ups begins one year before the action in THE ENEMY, when the disease first strikes.

My Review:

*Read this BEFORE The Enemy*

Intense! Smart kids! Suspenseful zombie drama I could not put down. I found this while searching for a good zombie book that would keep my teenaged boy reading. There is no lovey dovie romances in this one, straight horror, fighting for your life and even death to the teens in this books. Sure there are some parts where I'm like why didn't they do this or that, but the only challenge I had was keeping up with all the characters. However, my son loved the mishmash of different characters coming and going. This is a nail biter that my husband even loved. Even though this was the 2nd book in the series (a pre-qual) I'd read this one first since the second book takes awhile to understand some of the reasons for things happening and even this book doesn't fully resolve the reason why people are getting sick and turning to zombies. I give this a 5 out of 4 stars simply because there were a few left open questions.

Goodreads Blurb:
A sickness has afflicted everyone over the age of 16; anyone who is a "grown-up" has become a decomposing, brainless creature that survives by feeding on children. The children and teens have barricaded themselves in fortified buildings, fighting off attacks from the grown-ups who travel in packs, like hungry dogs. Before long, the young survivors are promised a safe haven in Buckingham Palace and make their way to it, crossing London on a perilous journey that will test them in harrowing ways. But their fight to stay alive is far from over—the threat from within is as real as the one on the outside.

MY REVIEW:

I love it! I couldn't sleep at night, I read this instead of watching The Walking Dead. Of all the characters, I really got connected to 'Little Sam' and his survival during this "Sicko" zombie infested world. I'm glad I read the first book though because this one does little to explain the cause of this disaster. In this one, the body count is also high. It's brutal, intense, suspenseful and frightening....everything a teenaged boy or girl will love in a gory horror filled with smart, weak, hurting, surviving kids. I gave this one 4 stars out of 5 for the unanswered questions regarding the origin of the disaster.

Life, Liberty, and Pursuit by Susan Kaye Quinn

2012-01-06T05:12:00.000-08:00

NYIA teen book reviewer is in the house! She's looking at a sweet romance called Life, Liberty, and Pursuit by Susan Kaye Quinn.

Amazon Blurb:
When college-bound Eliza falls into a cruise-ship pool, she doesn't expect to fall in love. And when navy recruit David pulls her from the water, he finds her surprisingly hard to resist. But a whirlwind of rescues, candlelit nights, and beachside misunderstandings pulls them into a four-day love affair that threatens to break their hearts before their love has a chance to start. When David leaves for endless drills and physical training in boot camp, and Eliza returns to Albuquerque to prepare for Princeton in the fall, they dare to keep loving each other and struggle to imagine a future when they can be together. But when miles and mistrust pull them apart, they are forced to choose between keeping true to their dreams and having the courage to love.

NYIA's REVIEW:
Awwww! This story was so cute. I really liked Eliza and wanted her and David to work out. But I think I would have liked a bit more drama. I didn't mind how fast they fell for each other but I was sad about the long distance relationship since I couldn't see anyone being able to do that even with talking on facebook. I really enjoyed it though and give it 3.5 lifeboats out of 5.

AMAZON LINK TO PURCHASE: CLICK HERE

Editing Sucks! But there are tools to make it Better

2012-01-04T19:20:00.000-08:00

Editing is a big issue for many writers. Not to mention that one doesn’t usually have the money to pay for a professional editor prior to submitting their novel to Lit Agents or Publishers.

But there is software available to help a writer tighten up their manuscript prior to sending it out for submission. In cases of publishing their own works, using these tools can help get a manuscript as clean as possible prior to sending it to an editor.

WHY CLEAN UP A MANUSCRIPT IF AN EDITOR IS GOING TO?

Editors are human. They make errors, don’t find things, and unknowingly miss obvious errors in works also. No book is without room for improvement. An author should always try to get their work in the best possible shape BEFORE it goes to the editor to ensure that their work is represented at its best.

I’ve paid editors to edit work and there were still errors – even had proof readers after final edits. But the human eye, and talent for editing is rather unique with each editor used.

For example, if you had a bowl full of cherries, some good and some rotten … wouldn’t you rather start cleaning up the bowl with less rotten cherries and wouldn’t you most likely be able to clean up all the messy cherries when there aren’t too many?

HERE ARE SOME TOOL BREAKDOWNS

Use these tools when you have personally edited your manuscript as best as you can: after you have had your work critiqued by other authors and beta read at least 3 times, with cleaning it up yourself thereafter.

Once the above steps are completed, then purchase short membership and use of tool for specific types of errors.

Autocrit – I’ve used Autocrit to find my repeated words and phrases mostly. It has a free offering for testing it out on it’s website. Just use the free feature if you only produce a book a year, but if you are like me and kick out three a year a minimum subscription really helps. I do the gold membership for $47 since I edit in small pieces.

Grammarly – I have a habit of using the wrong word in cases where there are two words that say the same thing but doesn’t mean the same thing. Grammarly is a great tool for helping me find these issues. It’s cheap at $19.95 a month and I only use it the month I want to edit my book. Then I cancel the subscription. I use this on my 2nd and 3rd drafts prior to submitting to agents or an editor for my small press to publish.

MasterEdit – This is a good tool at just $30 if you plan on using it frequently. I haven’t used it yet myself but plan on purchasing it and trying it out next year for the three manuscripts I have planned. I hope to use it after my 3rd run through critique partners and beta readers.

MyWriterTools – This is also a cheap tool, now on sale for $24.95 that works within MS Word as an add-on. It covers all of the features of the above tools and can be useful while writing that first draft. I’m planning on using this also so that I can have a cleaner first draft. Hopefully, it won’t slow my progress.

StyleWriter is also an add-in but for me personally it looks too complex. It has great customizable features though and is free for downloading and trying out. So check it out and see if it meets your needs over the above.

AutomatedEditing – This monthly membership works in a similar way as Autocrit but you can also try it out for free. I prefer Autocrit over this one but most likely due to personal preference.

Kibin – Use this site for a critique of sorts. Great feedback is given here and if you are having problems securing good beta readers (I get mine from absolutewrite.com and yalitchat) or a critique partner here’s a good resource for feedback. Just have thick skin.

Staying Positive for The New Year

2012-01-02T13:34:00.000-08:00

I DO BELIEVE DREAMS CAN COME TRUE

When I look at all the wonderful and amazing things that happen to me in 2011 I get a shiver of excitement. Now don't take that to mean that there weren't some serious pitfalls, struggles, sadness and heart clenching moments - there were many. But even though bad things happened, some really wondrous things happened too!

THE BEST THING - DREAM I could DREAM CAME TRUE but with tragedy

I always wanted to meet author, LA Banks, who was a best selling author of the Vampire Huntress series. After stalking uh...following her on twitter, Facebook and such I reached out to her to be a guest on yalitchat.ning.org since she had just self-published her first YA novel, Shadow Walker.

WOULD you believe it, she contacted me and the invite grew to a friendship. Because, well even though she was a Best Selling Author ... she had a heart of pure gold, a loving nature and a giving spirit. She encouraged me to write the then WIP I told her about.

BUT it gets better! I invited her to an event in April, the Maryland's Writer's Convention and she came. Meeting her was a breath of fresh air. She also returned the money we gave her to come as a donation to the organization.

THEN tragedy struck when I found out just 4 months later that she was dying of cancer.

STAYING POSITIVE

I knew at that moment she visited me with the possibility of knowing that she was ill. And all she did was smile and talk about how blessed she was.

DREAMS CAN COME TRUE
and if you believe it, make a plan, be happy with your accomplishments ... who knows you will achieve it or more!

Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol

2011-12-30T07:53:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite things to do over the holidays is check out movies. I went to see three. This one is my favorite so stay tuned for the others.

Fandango Blurb:
Blamed for a terrorist attack on the Kremlin, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and the entire IMF agency are disavowed by the U.S. government, while the president initiates the Ghost Protocol. Forced to go "off the grid" -- left without resources or backup -- Hunt must somehow clear the agency's name and prevent another attack. Complicating matters even more, Ethan must undertake the impossible mission with a group of fellow IMF fugitives whose actual motives are suspect.

My Review:
Thank goodness this wasn't offered in 3D, lol! Anyways, I love Tom Cruise and knew that he wouldn't do a movie that was half bad so I really looked forward to this one. I wasn't disappointed. There was a jail breakout, building climbing and other impossible challenges for his team to overcome. And you know what? They made mistakes, big ones, but I honestly have to say by the end of the movie I was in love with each character and hated to see them go. I give this a 4 out of 5 stars only because some things just seemed a bit too convenient.

Christmas Favorites

2011-12-24T06:53:00.000-08:00

My Dreamy Christmas Songs for 2012

Polar Express - My kids sing this to me for the last 2 years :-D

Mistletoe - Justin Bieber my daughter told me to add this and I like it too!

Faith Hill - I still love this one
http://youtu.be/cSMjgNMdzEI

Ghost Train To Freedom by Faith Reese Martin

2011-12-20T15:24:00.000-08:00

Please welcome our TEEN BOOK REVIEWER, Nyia who will be giving us the skinny on this great historical adventure!

Ghost Train To Freedom by Faith Reese Martin

Genre: Children’s Fiction
Pub Date: February 2012
ISBN: 978-1-60800-014-2
Lavishly illustrated by Barry Sachs
Categories: Pre-teen+, Adventure, Historical Fiction
“What Price Freedom?”

Join two teenage time travelers on an exciting adventure as they risk their own safety and freedom to become conductors on the most dangerous train in history: the Underground Railroad.

This subtle history lesson empowers readers to understand that they, too, can take a stand against wrong and make a difference. The author skillfully weaves sound moral guidance around this historic framework into a compelling fantasy adventure.

The book will be accompanied by a Literary Guide for use in the classroom and by homeschoolers.

Faith’s story is packed with meticulous research about the URR and its famous “conductors,” as well as unknown homesteaders and everyday citizens, both black and white, who listened to their hearts and supported these brave people in their efforts to lead so many slaves to freedom and change America forever.

NYIA's REVIEW

When my mom first gave me this book I wasn't interested in reading a historical, much less one about slavery. I just hate that part of American History because it bothers me to know that my great-great grandparents were slaves. But after I read this book I was amazed at how people of both races helped each other and changed history. The book's main character Jinx takes you through time to help people who are helped by the underground railroad. Max is her companion and when they talk the dialogue sounds like an older person but it doesn't make you stop reading. It was suspenseful experiencing what the slaves had to go through to be free. Jinx would see these things through dreams and the book started with the dream that made her travel to the past. The author made learning about history interesting and I'd like to try out some of her other books. I give Ghost Train To 3.5 Freedom stars.

My ‘Boy’ Reading Experiment

2011-12-13T04:17:00.000-08:00

I’ve tried for quite some years to motivate my teenaged boy to read books. Even to the extent of writing most of my books in male POV because at least he’d read mine. But this season I’ve branched out. I’ve found several books that my son just couldn’t put down. However, the trick was to get him to pick it up in the first place.

So here’s what I did.

FIND OUT WHAT THEY LOVE TO WATCH

I started watching more TV with my son. From Jersey Shore to Furious Five and finally onto his Zombie obsession with the Walking Dead.

This season though, he was a little ticked off with the Walking dead because he said it was getting – (what’s that horrible word parents hate to hear from their kid?) BORING!

So from my blog visiting activities I found and loved reading a book called ‘Rot and Ruin’ by Jonathan Maberry . I even sent it to my nephew who grabbed me when he saw me to tell me he loved the book I sent.

THE SET UP

So, my husband is an avid reader of scifi and graphic comics. I purchased the book for his Ipad and asked him to read it, then propose to our son to read it with him.
Now my husband pulled this off effortlessly by reading during an episode of Walking Dead and gushing about the book to my son. About how it was better than the show. Then he handed my son his reader during a commercial break.

My son didn’t stop reading the book. The kid read all 400 pages in 5 days!!!!

AFTER THE ENGULFING

After the read the book, they were chatting about it, trying to figure out what was happening with this character or the next.

Then they asked – is there any other books by this guy? Well of course!(this is where series work well) I purchased book 2 in the series ‘Dust and Decay’ and they are eating that up right as we speak.

WHAT SUCKED THEM IN

The characters ‘acted’ like real guys. Sure my son got ticked off at the stupidity of the main character, but the suspense, action, and dialogue he said kept him wanting to read more.

SO, GIVE THIS READING EXPERIMENT A TRY …

Where To Find Sales on Ebooks!

2011-12-10T05:49:00.000-08:00

Well now since I have an ereader, I'm always looking for great finds. Sure I have authors that I'm rather loyal to, but I also search for great deals to find out about new authors

Here's some sites I go to find deals on ebooks.

Kindle Daily

Pixel Of Ink

The Frugal eReader

Red Adept

99 cent Network

Daily Ebook Reviews

Randamize Me

Book Trailer Reveal and Review of Explorer X-Beta

2011-12-09T06:18:00.000-08:00

Please enjoy the new book trailer created by Alicia 'Kat' for EXPLORER X - BETA

The First Book Review by:
Book Reader's Heaven

AMAZON LINK
B & N LINK

If you are interested in reading the eARC check it out at NetGalley this January 2012.

www.phenomenalonepress.com

If you are interested in reviewing Explorer X-Beta please leave message in the comments with your contact information and I will send you a free copy :-D

When Copper Suns Fall by KaSonndra Leigh

2011-12-06T19:56:00.000-08:00

Spotlight Author Guest, KaSonndra Leigh

New Book When Copper Suns Fall

Blurb:
In a not too distant future when angels hide their celestial identities, a teenage girl who uses ancient memories to change current events must face rival demon slayers before she can find the cure to save her brother and prevent a second apocalypse.

A Bit About KaSonndra Leigh,
KaSonndra Leigh lives in the City of Alchemy and Medicine in North Carolina. She holds the Master of Fine Arts in creative writing and is now looking forward to playing CLUE more often. She lives in an L-shaped house where she has created a secret library complete with fairies, Venetian plastered walls, and a desk made out of clear blue glass. When Copper Suns Fall is her debut novel.

Website: http://www.kasonndraleigh.com
Facebook: Facebook profile
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/kasonndraleigh
Blog: http://kasonndraleigh.blogspot.com/

LEARN MORE ABOUT ' When Copper Suns Fall '

BUY ON AMAZON Just $2.99

BUY ON Smashwords

New Ebook Cover Reveal! & Giveaway!

2011-12-03T08:14:00.000-08:00

Hiya!

Phenomenal One Press is happy to announce new ebook covers for The Pack and Bandits!!!

Yay!

The New Ebook Cover for Bandits:

Purchase for just $0.99 for the month of December
Kindle: Click Here
Nook: Click Here
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/56840

The New Ebook Cover for The Pack: (Effective 12/20/2011)

New cover active on 12/20/2011
Kindle: Click Here
Nook: Click Here

STILL TIME TO SIGN UP FOR FREE PAPERBACK ARC OF

Explorer X-Beta
Middle Grade Adventure

GoodReads Giveaway: Click Here
Sign up to win free copy!

Are Authors With Large Pubs the Only Ones with Movie Ops?

2011-12-01T05:18:00.000-08:00

Mid Atlantic Book Publishers will be chatting tonight (use #MBPA to follow chat - Thur. 12/1/2011 at 9pm EST)on this topic.

When you write your book do you see STARS? Dream of that movie deal?

One of the main reasons I would love to be with a large pub is to get a movie option for one of my books.

Of course, that is every writer's dream. But is it possible to do as an Indie Press, Self Published Author or Small Press?

I believe ... anything is possible if you know the roads traveled.

But statistics say - only a small percent of Small Press and Indie has achieved this.

HOW DOES A SMALL PRESS GO ABOUT THIS?

If one can land a Publishing Entertainment Attorney that does this, has contacts and is on bored with shopping the manuscript turned script to possible clients. This is best done before the book comes out. But if it happens after then that's awesome also.

Movie Options can garner a small press or large press from $500-Millions of dollars.

And I know an Indie Author that worked hard at getting the word out about her non-fiction book about serial killers and garnered her Movie Option on her own. So yes people - it can happen.

WHAT TO SELL:

Screenplay writes, Novelization writes, Sequel Rights, Consultant fees and Remake writes.

SOME WAYS John Kremer has composed in his book 1001 Ways to Market Your Books:

Use movie scouts who work for producers, sell direct to studio using the Hollywood Creative Directory, list your books with an online web site, list your books with an online we site, network (by going to film related events).

CAN IT REALLY HAPPEN:

Yes, but just like everything else in this business, it takes time, networking with the right people.

Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life by James Patterson

2011-11-29T06:40:00.001-08:00

I got this book free at the BEA (Book Expo America summer of this year straight from James Patterson's great hands!)

Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life by James Patterson

I will say it here, I love this guy. When he writes for teens he doesn't do boring.

Amazon Blurb:Rafe Khatchadorian has enough problems at home without throwing his first year of middle school into the mix. Luckily, he's got an ace plan for the best year ever, if only he can pull it off: With his best friend Leonardo the Silent awarding him points, Rafe tries to break every rule in his school's oppressive Code of Conduct. Chewing gum in class-5,000 points! Running in the hallway-10,000 points! Pulling the fire alarm-50,000 points! But when Rafe's game starts to catch up with him, he'll have to decide if winning is all that matters, or if he's finally ready to face the rules, bullies, and truths he's been avoiding.

My 8 Year Old Son's review:
Just so you know, I like to give reviews by the audience of readers that enjoy the age range of books. Since I have a son that loves to read, he and I are reading this together.

This book has short chapters (which my 8yr old son loves!) that way he reads a chapter and I read a chapter. There are some large words for him, but he works through them pretty well. The illustrations are fun and he loves reading them also. There are some sayings that have that boy gross spin on it and my son laughed at them even though I thought they were rather corny. Over all it's a great read with the same feel as the Diaries of a Wimpy Kid. My 8yr old son gave it 4 fingers out of 5 because he thought it was too long (lol! but he's an elementary school kid.) My 10 yr old read it in 1 day and thought the size and content was perfect for girls also.

Madness-Black Friday & Cyber Monday

2011-11-25T08:19:00.000-08:00

Have you ever been tempted to brave the long lines, the darkness of night, and the possible threat of being trampled to go to the sales event called BLACK FRIDAY?

Well I have. And when I think of the madness that encompasses the event I think of an old cheesy movie my kids love to watch every Christmas.

Jingle All The Way - WATCH VIDEO TRAILER

The Trailer is awesome :-D

BLURB:
A harried father decides to dream the impossible dream, to get that year's hot toy for his son just before Christmas Day.

BLACK FRIDAY CONFESSIONS:

These are the things that have happened to us on Black Friday sales of years past:

2011: My teenaged son attended his first Black Friday. Cut the line for a computer item and ran with it to my husband, only to be chased then tackled by four store employees, handcuffed then released. No lie! This really happened.

2009: I was pushed into the door of a store after the doors opened and the crowds rushed in to get the new game systems that were on sale for like 40% off.

2008: We camped out at the store for 4 hours before open only to be turned away as the store was full to capacity.

2005: Went with friends, did a football break and conquer to get all the toys we needed on sale. Only to forget my purse and have to call my husband while I was in line to drop off my money.

WHY DO I KEEP UP THE INSANITY:

I don't know. Maybe for the rush, but mostly for the incredible deals. But after this year's event, I'm throwing in my BLACK FRIDAY towel and turning to..... CYBER TUESDAY. I think I'll have 3 computers set up and ready to make my Christmas sales purchases.

What do you think? Do you get caught in the madness?

Well DON'T (this is one of those do what I say and not what I do scenarios.) Trust me...after this year, I'm giving it up. I am...

ELEVEN by Carolyn Arnold

2011-11-23T08:48:00.000-08:00

Need something to be thankful for? Check out this great Mystery Thriller and you'll be glad that you aren't the one being hunted.

AMAZON BLURB
Product Description
Eleven Rooms. Ten Bodies. One Empty Grave.

Brandon Fisher never expected this when he signed up as a Special Agent for the FBI. Working in the shadow of Supervisory Special Agent Jack Harper of the Behavioral Analysis Unit his career seemed set. But when the team is called to a small rural town where the remains of ten victims are found in an underground bunker, buried in an unusual way, Brandon knows he'll never return to his normal life.

With one empty grave, and the case touching close to home, he fears he's become the target of a psychotic serial killer who wants to make him number eleven. Only thing is, everything Brandon thinks he knows is far from the truth.

Length: 103,000 words

BUY on AMAZON - CLICK HERE

$4.99 Ebook
$14.99 Paperback

Breaking Dawn Pt. 1 (Twilight) Movie review

2011-11-18T04:44:00.000-08:00

Fandango Blurb:
At last, Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Edward (Robert Pattinson) are getting married. When Jacob (Taylor Lautner) finds out that Bella wants to spend her honeymoon as a human, he is horrified -- for Edward's passion could accidentally kill her. Bella does indeed survive her honeymoon, but a new complication arises when she discovers that she's pregnant -- and the child is growing at an alarming rate. The pregnancy sets the wolves against Bella and Edward, but Jacob vows to protect his friend.

My Review:
Sweet Romance. Yes, this movie played like a romance novel. It began with the wedding invitations. An angry and tormented Jacob. Bella's jittery nightmares. A cameo appearance from Ms. Myers, the author at the wedding. The wedding was absolutely beautiful. The honeymoon was to die for. And there were some funny lines where I giggled. The innocent beginning to their physical relationship with a display of Edward's barely restrained strength during their well done love scene - then the bruises on Bella, followed by Edward's guilt. I enjoyed this movie, but out of the rest of them maybe not as much since it was rather slow. The special effects on Bella's dying pregnant body and her rebirth was very well done. There was a few fight scenes and they were short and mild. My overall rating is 3.5 fangs. Enjoyable and well-done. But I took of 1.5 fangs because I felt like the movie company just wanted to make money by prolonging the 2nd part of the movie and not combining it. There were scenes they could have shortened or taken out to make one movie. Now I will warn you, I took my reluctant husband with me, and on the 'man' radar he gave it a 2.5 fangs. But he's a guy and doesn't 'get' it.

THE TWO FACED MAN of INDIE PUBLISHING

2011-11-15T19:12:00.000-08:00

I have to tell you. It seems like each and every time I finish a novel I get clammy hands. Every time I struggle with whether or not what I write is good enough. Or ready for mainstream. I mean how many times does an author have to hear, “You tell a good story.”

FIGURE OUT ITS POTENTIAL

After I get that baby in shape I think about what I should do. I have to admit, I hate querying. I do. I do. Coming up with a query letter is so painful and I can’t honestly say it gets any easier after the hundreds I’ve written.

But I write one anyway – even though I know that it’s likely that Phenomenal One Press will publish it. Now I have one wip that I just finished that I really think that a large publisher would love it – but, but, but … (I’ll get there later, I got off point)

So, I ask my betas, is this mainstream, what market you see this fitting into? Do you think I should sub it?

Therefore, each writer should look at all their written works and figure out what the best market stream for that product is. Since I write novels – can’t seem to write a short story no matter what, most of my stuff should go to the novel market.

TO PUBLISH THE TRIED AND TRUE OR TRY TO SELL TO A BIG DOG

I admit it, I’m a control freak. Now I have to say I’m pretty darned proud of what Phenomenal One Press produces and sells. Hey, our sells are good and get pre-orders for our books coming out in 2012 from stores and distributors – (NO WAY…yeah WAY, in just 2 years we’ve accomplished a lot as a small pub) Ooops, I digress again.

Even though I know a sure way to get my books to print and to market would be great through Phenomenal One Press – I still pursue the large publishing companies for each and every work.

Why? Well, why not? Alright – here’s why not – because I really hate the query process, I don’t want to wait 1 or more years for my book to go to print, and because – well I do a good darn job at being a partner in a small press.

My advice is, every writer, should attempt all routes to sell, because it flushes out – HOW TO SELL your book. From writing my query letters, synopsis and pitches – I use all of them in publishing my books. From the pitch being my sales handle straight to consumer.

DON’T GIVE UP EITHER WAY

Either way you slice, publishing books is not easy – but it gets MUCH easier with time and experience. And now, it’s very easy for us to publish our books. One of the reasons why I struggle on to try to sell to a large publisher or do it with Phenomenal One Press where I have a lot of the control - okay maybe not sooo much since I have a sales focused partner who keeps my author alter ego in check when it's time to talk sales. Oh...sorry... I digressed again.

I do realize that our small press has been able to penetrate into markets that a lot of the big publishers do, but I really would love to get a movie option for one of my works and we just haven't tackled that ... yet (my partner is researching and sharpening his pitch for a subsidiary rights agent) so who knows.

More and more, there is still talent being scooped up by the big publishing companies and hard working literary agents. Do yourself a favor and pursue both why not? The days when writer’s had boundaries and only one road to free their words are over.

Immortals - Movie Review

2011-11-13T14:53:00.000-08:00

Blurb from Fandango:
Theseus is a mortal man chosen by Zeus to lead the fight against the ruthless King Hyperion, who is on a rampage across Greece to obtain a weapon that can destroy humanity. Power-hungry King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) and his ruthless army march across Greece, leaving burned-out villages and the corpses of the innocent in their wake. Hyperion's goal is to find the long-lost Bow of Epirus; with this invincible weapon, he can cast the gods out of Mount Olympus and become master of the world. A stonemason named Theseus (Henry Cavill) heeds the words of the sibylline oracle (Freida Pinto), who convinces him that he is the key to stopping the bloodthirsty king.

My Review:

Okay, just to be clear, I love mythology, gorgeous testosterone driven men in my movies that are itching for a fight. In that department, this movie didn't fail me. Theseus was everything I would love about a hero. He was sensitive, loved his mom, didn't want to fight unless given cause and when he was - he could kick the snot out of anyone that stood in his way. Now, the action, the fight scenes, the evil villain fit the bill. Where this movie fell short was the development of Theseus, I wanted to know more about him. For some reason I really fell in love with the Oracle and her sisters. I connected with their pain. Now don't get me wrong, not because they are females since I usually am drawn more to male characters. But the scenes where these ladies were in just seemed to do more to make you connect to them. In addition, there seemed to be a vivid show of violence just for violence sake and I wish they would have spent more of that time to develop the characters of Zeus and the other gods. So after the movie I was satisfied but still left a bit wanting. For that I give it 3.5 out of 5 bows.

Destined by Jessie Harrell - CONTEST

2011-11-10T17:29:00.000-08:00

CONTEST ALERT!! Read the bottom to jump in on the contest and win a FREE EBOOK COPY!

NYIA Teen Book Reviewer is in the HOUSE! Read the review and sign up for the contest.

Amazon Blurb:
"As he approached, I heard the flapping of wings, like an overgrown eagle. The sound dissolved when he landed at the edge of the open window. A rush of wind flew past me and extinguished the flames in the fireplace. Stars glimmered behind him but his body was encircled in black."

***

When Psyche receives a prophecy gone horribly wrong, she learns that even the most beautiful girl in Greece can have a hideous future. Her fate? Fall in love with the one creature even the gods fear.

As she feels herself slipping closer into the arms of the prophecy, Psyche must choose between the terrifyingly tender touch she feels almost powerless to resist and the one constant she's come to expect out of life: you cannot escape what is destined.

Destined is a fresh and heartachingly romantic retelling of the Cupid & Psyche myth from debut novelist, Jessie Harrell.

NYIA's BOOK REVIEW:

Destined was a well written, lovely book that took a unique twist on the story of Psyche and Eros. The author, Jessie Harrell, did a great job of keeping the balance between modern and ancient. She did a good job at keeping the story in the time period, but also making it have a modern voice for both Eros and Psyche. The book was split into two different character's opinions, yet the author could relay details but not make it sound as if she is retelling the story too much or leaving something out. The only thing that I had a problem with was that there were parts in the book which seemed less like godly powers and more like magic. The gods also went to sleep and apparently could be killed which confused me because gods are suppose to be immortal. Besides these few details, the story was a good love story based on Greek mythology. I would give this book a 4 out of 5 and suggest that you read it if you want an capturing love story with a hint a adventure.

ENJOY A READING FROM THE AUTHOR - Click Here

Here's the tour schedule. If you don't win now, try one of the other tour stops :-D
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

1-Nov Once Upon A Twilght - Book Trailer +Interview Ebook giveaway
2-Nov Books With Bite - Interview Ebook giveaway
3-Nov Living in Literary La La Land Guest Post Ebook giveawayhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
4-Nov I am a Reader, Not a Writer Guest Post Ebook giveaway
5-Nov Paper Hangover Interview Ebook giveaway
6-Nov Nikki Katz Interview Ebook giveaway
6-Nov Fictional Distraction Review Ebook Giveaway
7-Nov Daisy Chain Book Review Interview Ebook giveaway
8-Nov MundieMoms Review + Short Story Ebook giveaway
9-Nov Safari Poet Guest Post Ebook giveaway
10-Nov Good Choice Reading WOW CONTEST + Review Ebook giveaway
11-Nov LM Preston Guest Post VLOG - Read a Scene Ebook giveaway
12-Nov An Avid Readers Musings Interview VLOG Ebook giveaway
13-Nov Skyla11377 Review Ebook giveaway
14-Nov Dark Readers Interview Ebook giveaway
15-Nov Shortie Says... Character GUEST POST Ebook giveaway
16-Nov A Cozy Reader's Corner Reviews Guest post - Sneak Peek Ebook giveaway
17-Nov Stuck In Books Character Interview Ebook giveaway
18-Nov From A to Z Review Ebook giveaway
19-Nov Turning Pages Interview Ebook giveawayhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
20-Nov A Tale of Many Reviews Guest Post Ebook giveaway
21-Nov Read My Mind - AliseonLife Interview Vlog Ebook giveaway
22-Nov S.A.Larson Review Ebook giveaway
23-Nov Starry Sky Books Prize pack giveaway + Guest Post Ebook giveaway
23-Nov Angels and Demons and Portals. Oh My! Prize pack giveaway Ebook giveaway

"If you leave your e-mail address in your comment, you'll be automatically entered to win an e-copy of Destined. The contest will stay open for 48 hours after the post goes live, and then Jessie will use random.org to select a winner. Available formats include .mobu, .epub and .pdf.
And please be sure to visit the other stops on Destined's official blog tour for chances to win copies of Destined and other goodies. [include linked list]"

BUY HERE: AMAZON
BARNES AND NOBLE

Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa

2011-11-08T05:15:00.000-08:00

NYIA our TEEN BOOK REVIEWER IS IN THE HOUSE!!!!

B&N blurb:
My name—my True Name—is Ashallayn'darkmyr Tallyn.
I am the last remaining son of Mab, Queen of the Unseelie Court. And I am dead to her.

My fall began, as many stories do, with a girl…

NYIA’s REVIEW:
Oh my gosh! This was so good. Since this is supposed to be the end of the series I can say I liked the way it ended. I’m going to miss Meghan, Ash and Puck. This is a series that I will read over again by me. Probably over the holidays when I want an adventure. Of course with this book there is a great quest with lots of nail biting suspense and drama. Thanks to Puck there is some funny moments. There is a little bit of a twist but a good one. I give this 5 out of 5 wings :-D

Giveaway Alert!!!

2011-11-06T06:10:00.000-08:00

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Explorer X - Beta

by LM Preston

Giveaway ends December 05, 2011.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Bandits

by L.M. Preston

Giveaway ends November 14, 2011.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

How to Sell Subsidiary Rights

2011-11-02T19:32:00.000-07:00

So now you figured out you are a publisher? Well figure out ways to sell your stuff.

Mid Atlantic Book Publishers #MBPA (use this hashtag to participate) is having a twitter chat this Thursday (11/3) at 9pm EST

SUBSIDIARY RIGHTS

The sale of subsidiary rights is a major source of money for traditional book publishers.

John Kremer states the reasons why publishers should pursue these:

Rights Income will help pay for printing and promos
Make money on your books even before they are released
The sales of these rights increase buzz about your books
The sales of these rights give credibility to your book
More sales create additional sales for other titles
The more sales in this area makes it easier to get booksellers to pick up the book
Movie and TV rights will increase sale of your released book and subsequent books from the author

John Kremer gives tips on selling these rights:

Create a contact list to include buyers for, serial, audio/video, reprints, book club rights and more by category.
Cold call, email, postcard mail these sources to let them know of your upcoming book
Send out review copies with marketing plans, media kits to these prospects
Approach more than one lead at a time
Follow-up with call or face to face visit
Take your time and prepare for the unexpected
Feature rights for sell on your publishing focused website
Get a rights agent that works with publishers

When an author signs a contract with a publishing house, they generally grant the publisher ‘volume rights’ within certain territories. This gives the publisher the right to publish the book in certain formats. The royalties relating to hardback, paperback and sometimes trade paperback (a larger paperback format) editions will be spelled out.

There will be clauses in the contract covering all the other rights. These are the ‘subsidiary’ rights granted to publishers and can also be referred to as sub-leases.

NANOWRIMO Has Started! CONTEST Alert!!

2011-11-01T04:01:00.000-07:00

Get your write on for National Writing Month - Nanowrimo

National Novel Writing Month is also known as NaNoWriMo. Writer's (this means you: new writers, experience writers - any writer) can register on the NaNoWriMo website and track of progress for writing up to 50,000 words in a month.

Get involved with the various forums, chats, and tons of resources and groups where writers can work together in person.

Yalitchat is hosting a Nanowrimo contest so get on board!

Link to YALITCHAT website: www.yalitchat.ning.com

CONTEST link: http://t.co/cXkgxAcP

Join in the #nanowrimo contest for free kindle, membership and more! http://t.co/cXkgxAcP

Scary Books - A Whisper To A Scream - Romantic Horror

2011-10-27T12:42:00.000-07:00

Please join us for a sweet Halloween treat. Author Lauren Hammond shares a spooktackelar reading from her book, A whisper to a scream.

Here's the Amazon Blurb:
Sometimes love....can be deadly.

Ellory Graham detested high school. She relished the fact that she was a rebel. A wild, carefree, type of girl. She basked in the glory of being the type of girl who stood up to authority. Unfortunately for her, her upfront, honest and bitchy nature always managed to land her in some kind of trouble.

Adam Jacobs was everything Ellory was not. Not only was he beautiful, but he was smart, artistic, and sweet. To almost every girl he seemed like the total package- that all around perfect guy. But in a town were nothing particularly interesting happens, and gossip seems like the only fun thing to do, sometimes those perfections become flaws. And it doesn’t take long for Ellory to find out, even Adam has secrets.

But Adam’s secrets, are the kind of secrets people die for...

Buy it for just $1.25 (Wowsa!) Click Here: Amazon and Nook

LAMENT and BALLAD by Maggie Stiefvater

2011-10-25T14:35:00.000-07:00

AMAZON BLURB:
Sixteen-year-old Deirdre Monaghan is a painfully shy but prodigiously gifted musician. She's about to find out she's also a cloverhand—one who can see faeries. Deirdre finds herself infatuated with a mysterious boy who enters her ordinary suburban life, seemingly out of thin air. Trouble is, the enigmatic and gorgeous Luke turns out to be a gallowglass—a soulless faerie assassin. An equally hunky—and equally dangerous—dark faerie soldier named Aodhan is also stalking Deirdre. Sworn enemies, Luke and Aodhan each have a deadly assignment from the Faerie Queen. Namely, kill Deirdre before her music captures the attention of the Fae and threatens the Queen's sovereignty. Caught in the crossfire with Deirdre is James, her wisecracking but loyal best friend. Deirdre had been wishing her life weren't so dull, but getting trapped in the middle of a centuries-old faerie war isn't exactly what she had in mind . . .

NYIA TEEN BOOK REVIEWER SAYS:

I figured I'd pick this up since it was written by the author of Linger, Maggie Stiefvater. It was a great book. It had a lot of action, and just enough romance. Of course there was drama, mostly romantic drama. The main character Deirdre. There was a mystery. Her love interest was loveable. The book was pretty faced paced, with only a few slow parts - her dreams. I don't really like when they put a lot of dreams in books because they always seem to go off topic. That was the only thing that kind of annoyed me. Overall, I give this book a 4 out of 5 wings.

Amazon Blurb:
Nuala is part muse, part psychic vampire. While the freedom to sing or write or create is denied her, her mark across history is unmistakable: a trail of brilliant poets, musicians, and artists who have died tragically young. She has no sympathy for their abbreviated life spans; every thirteen Halloweens she burns in a bonfire and rises from her ashes with no memories of what has come before other than the knowledge of how her end will come.

James is the best bagpiper in the state of Virginia—maybe in the country—plus he's young and good-looking: just Nuala's thing. But James, supremely confident in his own abilities and in love with another girl, becomes the first to ever reject Nuala's offer. He's preoccupied with bigger things than Nuala: an enigmatic horned figure who appears at dusk and the downward spiral of Dee, his girlfriend-who-isn't.

BALLAD by Maggie Stiefvater

NYIA quick review: The short and sweet of it is, I give this a 3 out of 5 wings. I really didn't like the prospective of this book and it rather messed up the overall good feelings I got after reading book one. I mainly took off a wing because I didn't like Muella's prospective. There was a lot of drama - to much that distracted from the overall plot. But overall was an okay read.

Expand Your Creative Horizons

2011-10-23T15:21:00.000-07:00

We writers have a tendency to stay closed in and write our little hearts our. But way way to get your muse humming is to get out and BE A KID AGAIN. Yep, play, experience and explore. And guess what? You don't have to be a writer to do it.

CHEAP WAYS TO EXPLORE

Museums, hikes, long drives, research wondrously weird places where you live and visit them. Step outside of your comfort zone and go to something wacky with your friends or kids.

These are some things I've done to get wacky this year:
- Visited Renaissance Festival, Comic Con, Faerie Con
- Museum hopping
- Parks and play
- Drive through local areas considered haunted and spooky
- Joined Meetup groups to learn salsa, different places to travel, and about cooking.

WHY STEP OUT OF YOUR ZONE

Experiencing life by doing something new and meeting new people. I've met some great people that although we may have talked for a moment impacted my stories to come in a big way.

I tried several things that I was too scared to do before. Just to see if I could write about it. Snowboarding was one of them. Oh my goodness was it sooooooo hard at first.

SO WHAT DID YOU DO TO EXPERIENCE YOUR WORLD? EXPAND YOUR HORIZONS? AND LEARN SOMETHING MORE ABOUT YOURSELF THIS YEAR?

THE THING - Movie Review

2011-10-21T03:58:00.000-07:00

FANDANGO:
Paranoia spreads like an epidemic among a group of researchers as they’re infected, one by one, by a mystery from another planet. Paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) has traveled to the desolate region for the expedition of her lifetime. Joining a Norwegian scientific team that has stumbled across an extraterrestrial ship buried in the ice, she discovers an organism that seems to have died in the crash eons ago. But it is about to wake up.
When a simple experiment frees the alien from its frozen prison, Kate must join the crew’s pilot, Carter (Joel Edgerton), to keep it from killing them off one at a time. And in this vast, intense land, a parasite that can mimic anything it touches will pit human against human as it tries to survive and flourish.

MY REVIEW:
Well my teenager wanted to see Paranormal Activity 3 but I wanted to see the THING. Since I was paying...well, you know the rest. It started off slow, but gave a basis for how they found the THING and why it even got exposed to the world in the first place. A scientist is invited to investigate this alien finding in the Artic.She goes with a team to check it out and they do some really stupid things by taking the alien out of the ice, taking a sample then ticking it off. The death toll and special effects were really good. I jumped a few times and my son even woke up once the killing started. It also closed the gap between the original movie The Thing and served as a decent prequel. I give it 3 out of 5 blood cells.

Ebook vs Paperback Book Sales by Genre

2011-10-18T10:48:00.000-07:00

Chart provided by: Adventures In EPublishing Blog
This Thursday at 9pm EST Mid-Atlantic Book Publishers (MBPA) will have a twitter chat (use hashtag #MBPA)to weigh in on this topic further.

EBOOK SALES BY GENRE

Recently my publisher and I (I am part owner of Phenomenal One Press) reviewed our sales numbers for all of our titles. What we found was a definite trend in changes. Some were pleasantly pleasing. Others were no surprise.

YOUNG ADULT Books

Initially our sales for The Pack were mainly in paperback in 2010. But at the end of 2010 and into 2011 our ebook sales far outshine our paperback sales for both of our YA books, The Pack and Bandits. It caused us to change our release models for 2012. Also, it saves us a ton of money on returns and printing. After the first print run, we now do Print-On-Demand to save cost on printing after the first digital print run.

Paperback Sales: To local bookstores we sold to, a few libraries, amazon purchases. In 2010 that was the major source of our sales.

Ebook Sales: Wowsa has this increased from 2010! We are consistently selling our ebooks monthly in this genre. Almost to the point of outselling our paperbacks. To be honest that's not too surprising since we see a spike in the paperback sales when the book initially comes out, then a slight peak when another title is release or after our marketing boost of cold-calling and visits to stores that carry our paperback books.

Also, now when I do book signings people ask if its in ebook. I now carry ebook postcards and paste download codes on the card for buyers that want an ebook copy of my books.

MIDDLE GRADE Books:

Paperback Sales: Our Middle Grade (MG) sells much better in Paperback consistently. It sells well at in person book signings, local stores and some libraries. We've seen consistent sales in our paperbacks that increases with each new release.

Ebook Sales: in 2009 when the series first came out there were absolutely 0 ebooks sold in 2009. In 2010 we saw an increase of maybe 2-4 copies a month. In 2011, it only increased to max of 10 copies a few months when one of our other titles came out. Although, we see an increase in numbers we don't believe many kids this age have ereaders. They still like to touch, feel, and read a book in hand. The idea of searching through an ebook catalog of books turns off my now 10yr old so I'm not surprised. However, my 14yr old would love to have her own ereader.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

GENREs I've RESEARCHED THAT DO WELL AS EBOOK RELEASES:

Oh, check out this nifty Pie-Chart on EBOOK SALES by Derek Canyon.

- Romance (YA/Adult/All other kinds)
- YA (definite growth and growing more and more every year)
- Mysteries and Thrillers

HIDDEN GEMS that sell well in EBOOK Market

- Short Stories. Anthologies. (These do exceptionally well in the ebook market. Most people don't mind spending $0.99 for 35K-50K short. Although a 5-7K short I've seen get bad reviews because it was too short for the reader to feel as though it was worth the $0.99-$2.99 I've seen charged for them)

Movie Remakes ... Why do they do it?

2011-10-16T20:39:00.000-07:00

I have to do a Monday vent. Since being in the house all weekend on a flu imposed shut in I've been watching my share of commercials.

DO MOVIE PRODUCERS READ?

I sometimes wonder if movie producers read books. There are tons of great stories out there, looking to be created on the big screen. Hello out there in movie world! Ask me about some great new stories.

HOW DO THEY DECIDE ON WHAT MOVIES TO REMAKE?

I wonder how they figure it out. How do the decide which movies to remake because some of the ones they have weren't that great the first time and the second time was even worst. If you know please tell me. I personally think it's just laziness.

HERE's the lineup. NONE of these movies I want to see remade. What about you?

Do you know this must be the year of the remakes.

Here's the lowdown list for 2011/2012:

Conan
The Crow
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Spiderman (yep - again)
Porkey's
Warriors (a classic I still love to watch)
The Housemaid
The Mechanic
Arthur
13 Assassins
Dylan Dog: Dead of Night
Fright Night
Straw Dogs
Footloose
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Thing

Publishing Release Models

2011-10-12T03:46:00.000-07:00

Mid Atlantic Book Publishers (use Hashtag #MBPA for twitter chat Thurs 10/13 9pm EST) we'll be chatting about publishing release models. The way to publish different formats for maximum benefits.

TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING RELEASE MODELS

Hardcover books usually come first, then about 8 months to 12 months later comes the paperback. Now with ebooks in the mix they usually come a bit after the hardcover and audio formats. They use offset printing of initial print runs of anywhere between 5000 to 10,000.

SMALL PRESS MODELS

Well Mid Atlantic Book Publishers support small press (independent publishers) or publishers that publish their own work. We have to be a bit more flexible and creative. Now it's cheaper and sometimes a bit more profitable to release ebooks first. Then 6X9 or perfect paperback (because stores return mass production paperbacks by tearing off the covers which is money down the drain for a small press or independent publishers). For my small press we only release in Perfect Paperback and ebooks. It's the cheapest way. We release only 300 of ARCs then 1500. But now that has changed since we sell more in ebooks then Paperback now. So now we only release 800 for our first print, then we go to Print On Demand (POD).

SO WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?

Please join us THURS, 10/13 9pm EST on MBPA twitter chat using the hashtag #MBPA

Real Steel Movie Review

2011-10-09T18:18:00.000-07:00

FANDANGO BLURB:
A gritty, white-knuckle, action ride set in the near-future, where the sport of boxing has gone hi-tech, “Real Steel” stars Hugh Jackman as Charlie Kenton, a washed-up fighter who lost his chance at a title when 2000-pound, 8-foot-tall steel robots took over the ring. Now nothing but a small-time promoter, Charlie earns just enough money piecing together low-end bots from scrap metal to get from one underground boxing venue to the next. When Charlie hits rock bottom, he reluctantly teams up with his estranged son Max (Dakota Goyo) to build and train a championship contender. As the stakes in the brutal, no-holds-barred arena are raised, Charlie and Max, against all odds, get one last shot at a comeback.

MY REVIEW:
A Family feel good movie. My son saw the previews and been begging to see this movie ever since. Once again Stephen Spielberg has created a movie that captures present day humanistic struggles in futuristic concepts. It's a heart-warming story of a washed con man boxer on his last legs. He tries to make a quick buck off of his child that he never really wanted. With the combination of a young boy trying to find his father and threw the trials and tribulations they're relationship grows stronger and his father becomes the man he was meant to be. I give it a 4 out 5 steal because there was a moment in time in the middle when it got rather dry. A little more action would have been great.

Mid Atlantic Book Publishers 1st Twitter Chat

2011-10-07T12:29:00.000-07:00

Hiya! Mid Atlantic Book Publishers had it's first ever Twitter Chat this past Thurs, Oct. 6th.

The topic was 'PUBLISHING SUPPORT ASSOCIATIONS' like MBPA, IBPA and multiple others.

Some of the topics discussed were:

WHAT AM I? SELF-PUB? INDIE? AUTHOR JUST PUTTING STUFF OUT?

First of all it was deemed by MBPA President, Mary Schaffer, that if you

1. Edit, Format, Create a book.
2. Market and disseminate a book for sale.

Guess what? YOU ARE A PUBLISHER.

Definition of publisher:

pub·lish·er
[puhb-li-sher] Show IPA
noun
1.
a person or company whose business is the publishing of books, periodicals, engravings, computer software, etc.
2.
the business head of a newspaper organization or publishing house, commonly the owner or the representative of the owner.

SO... if you do any of the above. YOU ARE A PUBLISHER!

WHY PARTNER WITH ORGANIZATIONS

If you publish books (even just your own) you are a publisher and need to approach your business of publishing as such. Network, learn the biz, learn to better market...hey and learn your markets and who knows, you just may start taking on authors. Like so many other small press or indie publishers have.

BENEFITS of MBPA and IBPA

Networking

Classes

Co-op Marketing opportunities that put you in front of 'Booksellers' like bookstores, libraries, Foreign Rights and so many other markets.

And much much more!
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Check out Mid Atlantic Book Publishers: http://www.midatlanticbookpublishers.com/

And other Affiliate IBPA associations near you. Or hey - start your own :-D

Random-ish: The Births of Many Books

2011-10-03T14:54:00.000-07:00

Random-ish: The Births of Many Books

Wowsa that's a lot of books!

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. By Judy Blume

2011-10-03T14:03:00.000-07:00

I'd like to take a moment to give you the background on why I am reviewing this Oldie but Goodie book. I bought all the Judy Blume books I read for my daughter and she absolutely loved them all just as much as I did.

But my favorite - my first one was "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret."

It was one of the first books I've read that approached all the issues that I as a young girl of 11yrs was facing at that time in relation to my body and my peer image. Now some girls probably didn't have friends or feelings like Margaret - but some did and do.

For you new YA readers, check this one out.

BLURB:
Margaret has a very private relationship with God, and it's only after she moves to New Jersey and hangs out with a new friend that she discovers that it might be weird to talk to God without a priest or a rabbi to mediate. Margaret just wants to fit in! Who is God, and where is He when she needs Him? She begins to look into the cups of her training bra for answers.

JUDY BLUME's website:Click

Prom Anonymous by Blake Nelson

2011-09-28T16:16:00.000-07:00

Teen Book Reviewer - NYIA is in the house!!!!

Amazon Blurb:
Laura, Jace, and Chloe were best friends growing up, but once high school hit, they grew apart and found new (very different) friends. Now theyre juniors, and Laura has decided that nothing would be better than to go to the prom with her two oldest friends. A flurry of planning ensues. Freaky Chloe doesnt have a date or a dress, and isnt sure she wants either–after all, the only thing freakier than Chloe is Chloe in a dress with a blind date. Laura is determined to find her an appropriate date. Jace the jock wants to go with the cute new tennis star, but has a difficult time asking him. And Laura is so caught up in planning the perfect evening that she ignores the fact that her relationship with her boyfriend, with whom she had had sex over a hundred times in their 14 months together, is falling apart. Of course, all works out in the end. This is a fun read with decently drawn characters, some serious issues, a fair amount of teenage drinking, and a satisfying ending.

NYIA's REVIEW:
Prom Anonymous was an adorable teen romance and I loved it. I thought that the author did a great job of capturing all the different prom stories and the point of view from the three main characters (Chloe, Laura, and Jace) in a clever way while still in third person. Laura story of a blind prom date was so cute! I loved how the mysterious Zach seemed like he would be a good match for her. I also loved the Jace and Paul romance because it had that whole are-the-friend-gonna-end-up-together thing going on. I also loved the Laura love triangle going on with her crappy boyfriend and the new guy. The only thing that I didn't like about the book is that sometimes the parts seemed slow, but with any great book there are sections where less drama takes place. Overall I give the book a 5 out of 5 because it was an enjoyable light read.

Book Promotions - My top 5

2011-09-26T04:15:00.000-07:00

I spoke at the Baltimore Book Fest and I spoke about critique groups, beta readers and marketing.

I currently have many peers who have new books coming out within the next 9 months. And let me just say, I've done tons and tons of different things in the last 2 years to promote my books. You know ... get the word out.

Here are somethings I used that worked the best and that I saw the largest returns.

BLOG TOURS
Oh my I tell you bloggers are the best source of encouragement, buzz builders, and help for getting your books talked about. I can't say enough about working with book bloggers. They're gems!

SOCIAL MEDIA
Let me tell you, now that I have been in the book business awhile, it would surprise you that many older publishers are just know starting to see the benefit of using social media to get the word out about their books. I just wish I would have jumped in the social media pool a lot sooner because it's a lot of fun. Some of the most powerfel ways to spread the word is Twitter, FB (maybe Google+ may give them a run for their $) and blogger to name a few.

BOOK REVIEWS
This is a silent helper. The more book reviews you have, the more the internet book browser will purchase your book. Not to mention it shows how the word is getting out. Since many people have to read your book before someone actually post a review.

COVER
This is definately a must. Covers are very subjective because what I like, someone else may not like. But book covers is the first draw to getting someone interested in your book. And to change a cover can be costly to the small publisher in more ways than just the cost of a new artist to come up with a cover.

DIRECTED MAILINGS WITH FOLLOWUP
I've been able to get my book in bookstores and libraries by mailing a selected list a marketing plan, media kit and ARC. Then I have my marketing person follow up with a visit. It's garnered us sales.

ANOTHER ONE FOR THE ROAD...
Publishing the next book within 1 year.

NOT EVERYTHING WORKS FOR EVERYONE...WHAT WORKED FOR YOU?

Have U Changed Your BOOK Buying HABITS?

2011-09-21T18:52:00.000-07:00

So, have you done it? Turned, simulated, and changed your book buying habits since the onset of ebooks and ereaders?

I USED TO...
I was a library, bookstore groupie. I would hang out in the library for hours. And for me, that wasn't a lot. I lived in DC and would visit the Library of Congress and just... hang out and read. Being in that large, stately building of books, oh the smell... indescribable. But my first love was the neighborhood library where I used to walk to get...peace. Looking back on my life as a young person, I had a lot of drama, but I loved to dream and the city library let me do it.

THEN I...
Grew up, got out of college, had kids and ... would sneak off to the bookstore on my lunch break. I'd scoop up tons of books for my weekend all night reading sessions in bed. Then hooked my kids on my favorite hide out, the local library.

BUT now...
I'm an ebook addict. It happened. Not over night but gradually for me. I started buying ebooks when I would be stuck at work, at my desk and have to stay in for a 30 min lunch break. So I started to buy quick short stories to read on my computer at work while I ate. It got to the point where I was downloading 1 a day. After I got my ereader...well, the rest is history. I have bookshelves filled with googobs of books, but mostly for my kids who don't have ereaders. But even my 8 yr old said he wanted one and I've ordered books for him and my 10yr old who fight over my reader. Not to mention my teen who wants her own this Christmas.

THE Future...
It's happening. With the closing of our local bookstore, buying more books online at book festivals or downloading onto an ereader is a much easier option.

From a Author/Publisher Perspective...
More and more of my MG are staring to sell in ebooks, although the lionshare of the sales are in paperback. My YA's started off selling more in paperback, until I put them in ebook and they are selling far better than my paperback books. Which is great for the publishing company since we don't have to print so many initial runs of books. And the cost for producing ebooks is much cheaper.

WHAT HAVE YOU CHANGED ABOUT YOUR BOOK BUYING HABITS?

Contagion Movie Review

2011-09-18T20:09:00.000-07:00

FANDANGO SAYS:
When Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) returns to Minnesota from a Hong Kong business trip, she attributes the malaise she feels to jet lag. However, two days later, Beth is dead, and doctors tell her shocked husband (Matt Damon) that they have no idea what killed her. Soon, many others start to exhibit the same symptoms, and a global pandemic explodes. Doctors try to contain the lethal microbe, but society begins to collapse as a blogger (Jude Law) fans the flames of paranoia.

MY REVIEW:
I wanted to go see this. The movie OUTBREAK and 28 DAYS stuck out as some of my favs and I thought this would be another one of those bio-horror movies that would keep me on the edge of my seat in a suspense frozen state. Well, let me just say that the best actress was played by Gwyneth Paltrow - her dying scene was amazing. But the rest of this movie left me bored and frustrated while I was waiting for that big, big something to happen. This one, I won't live down for awhile, since I dragged my husband to see this instead of THE DEBT which looks really good I could kick myself. I gave this 1.5 out of 5 seizures.

Get Ready for Writing Nanowrimo!!

2011-09-15T04:58:00.000-07:00

Anyone Can do it and when you prepare - the results are awesome!

Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) from November 1st-30th. It’s the writing frenzy where you kick out a large number of words to hopefully finish a novel in record time. Many people start the challenge and end up with a sizeable number of pages by the end. Some are inspired to start writing for the first time. Others are inspired to finish something for the first time. Some, like me, find that writing at breakneck speed produces a lower quality of work that doesn’t reflect what is normally produced when writing within your own timing. Truth is, my natural timing is four months from start to finish. I tried to increase my speed and did it without much trouble. It increased by 3 weeks, and for me, that cooking time for a novel fits just right.

There are ways to make speed writing more effective. The overall goal, is to produce more in a shorter period of time. If you keep this up, who knows, speed writing may become a habit.

Prepare for it

When you set out to write a novel in a short period of time, outlining is your friend. Take a week to write a detailed outline of the story. It will help to work out most of the kinks before you even sit down to write. Create character profiles of the main characters and review outline before the start of your writing marathon.

Plan it

If you are going to focus on spitting out as many words as possible a day, then plan it. Block out your writing time for the month. Figure out when you are most productive. Is it in the morning, at night or midday? Make a rule – no sleep unless you have kicked out a minimum of a certain amount of words. Make sure you schedule extra time for working out of corners or temporary writer’s blocks. Make your schedule somewhat flexible so that you don’t get burned out and give up.

Write it

With a printout of your outline next to you and a bullet list of your character profile – start the race. Follow your outline. If you want to go rogue, go ahead, write until the roadblock. If you reach a road block – write anything, take some time off to think on it, then re-work your outline and get back to it. Also, if you took out writing time to think, add more blocks of writing time to make up your word count later. Whatever you do – don’t stop writing. Remember, you will always have to edit it.

Don’t look back

Whatever you do, don’t read over what you’ve written until you are finished. That is an easy way to get distracted. Remember, you’ll have to edit the thing many times before your piece of art is perfected. Just write forward, don’t make corrections, don’t read over it, just push forward and write.

My Cover Tease - Explorer X - Beta

2011-09-11T19:31:00.000-07:00

Well one of the best part of being an author is seeing an artist capture your characters and the world you've built on the cover.

This is my Middle Grade Series for ages 12yrs +

Although Explorer X-Beta comes out next Spring I just have to show you the cover :-D

Oh, and check out My Artist - Alicia 'Kat' Dilman's amazing site - click

Here's the First Book of the series:

I can't believe it's been 10 yrs from 9/11

2011-09-11T09:00:00.001-07:00

You know I've always been a pretty resilient person.It could be because I grew up with a lot of drama that shaped me into this ... survivor. I don't know.

But what I do know is, on 9/11 I was in my office when someone yelled out, "Check out the TV." I went into the conference room with my fellow co workers, and my jaw dropped at the news.

Now I worked in DC at the time, in a place that could very well be hit next and we all looked around and bolted.

I grabbed my purse, and jetted to my car where I called my husband who was at home with my kids. Many of my family members worked at the Pentagon and the White House, not to mention one of my best friends worked at the World Trade Center. I called her on my way home and she'd called in sick that day and was in literal shock while we spoke on the phone.

IN LIFE YOU MAY BE SHAKEN

And at this one time in my life, with all the other hurdles, challenges, stumbling blocks...this time will be remembered a bit more than most. Maybe because it was one thing that I didn't have to experience alone. It was something that I experienced with millions of people and we all......SURVIVED, GOT STRONGER, and learned that we are truly gifted to be able to take one more breath.

I'm a Guest Author at Soundry's Kindle Book Party!

2011-09-08T05:47:00.000-07:00

I've been invited to a Kindle Reading Party!!!
http://www.soundry.net/2011/08/reading-is-sexy-kindle-party-2/

Kindle Party!
Thurs. Sept 8th 7-11pm
Hello sexy, modern readers ,

Are you always looking for a good download for your ereader? This party is for you! Bring your ereader–it doesn’t have to be a Kindle. Ipads, Nooks, etc are all welcome to the party!

Kindle Parties feature indie novelists reading from their digitally published books. Questions and comments follow each author’s reading both in the studio and online via our live chat and video stream on The Kindle Party Channel on ustream.tv.

If you like what you hear, you can download on the spot! Zippity Zappity!

This is a party with a purpose! We want readers to discover new writers and help indie authors build their fan base by combining grassroots and viral marketing.

We will also be talking about social media outlets for book lovers and writers.

We have also invited indie publishers and book stores to the party! Have a book you want to publish? You should definitely come to this party!

Don’t have an ereader? Curious? Come and find out why you might want one.

Cost: $5 at the door

SPONSORED BY AREA 42 GAMES WHO IS TREATING ATTENDEES TO A COFFEE SHOP BEVERAGE! http://www.area42games.com/
Meet this month’s Kindle Party authors!
Richard Gazala: Author of Blood of the Moon

Joseph Barbaccia: Author of The Eight Currents

LM Preston: Young adult sci-fi author. LM Preston is the author of Explorer X-Alpha, The Pack and Bandits

Larry Buttram: Author of False Witness, Honor Thy Sister, The Third Generation and A Curtain Torn

Raymond Rose: Owner of Christopher William Books, an epublisher and author of The Fire Inside and Better Together

John Meagher: Author of Tales of the Left Hand

L.B. Gschwandtner: Founder of thenovelette.com and author of The Naked Gardner, Foxy’s Tale and Page Truly and the Journey to Nearandfar

Karen Cantwell: Author of the Barbara Marr Murder Mystery Series including her newest novel, Silenced by the Yams.

Kate Nevermore: Author of Blood for the Living

CHALLENGES and REWARDS OF CO-AUTHORING

2011-09-06T20:36:00.000-07:00

Well I’ve done it. I co-authored a book! It had some really great highs and some frustrating lows, but it was a great collaboration and pushed me in areas I never traveled before. After cleaning up our storage area in my basement, I ran across a short story my husband wrote for his English class back in college. Although the story was told from an adult prospective, I salivated at creating a teen character under the same premise as his short story.

I asked him if I could write a story using the basis and plot of his short story. He was elated that I wanted to. He wanted me to totally control the writing of it, but gave me key elements of the world building, characters and background of the story he wrote.

I came up with my draft outline of three books that would complete the series and the world building, character details and plot progression.

We chopped it up together and then I started to write. It took me 4 months to write this one – mostly because it took awhile for the story to flush out in my mind since the core plot wasn’t originally mine. However, *wink* once I owned it, I made major changes and fine tuned the plot to the point where he told me after he read the first draft, that I blew his mind with my changes :-D

BEST THINGS ABOUT CO-AUTHORING

It brings the best and the worst out of you. It allows you to explorer depths and ideas that you never considered before. You will have an in your face support system and motivator trying to achieve the same thing you are.

THINGS YOU SHOULD DO FOR SUCCESS

Make sure you like them.
You and your co-author should be able to easily communicate, not hold grudges and should like spending lots of time together. If you can’t do any of the above it may become a stressful partnership.

Come up with a Cohesive Idea.
Decide who does what, the main plot and how you will develop it and rules for engagement.

Outline that puppy together.
Building an outline with a clearly defined plot allows each co-author to stay on track. It is also a good way to flush out ideas.

Show me the Split.
Agree on how the split is made for the success of the project. Best case the split is 50/50 but early on is the time for making the decision on what is fair for specific effort.

No Big Heads allowed.
Be courteous and respectful with reviewing each others contribution.

PRIZE ALERT-INDIE BLOWOUT- FREE Kindle!

2011-09-02T13:55:00.000-07:00

*** SEPTEMBER 2 – 5 ONLY ***
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
The first ever INDIE BOOK BLOWOUT – To celebrate this exciting event, I’ve reduced the price on my book to only 99¢!

Yes, it’s a weekend to remember!
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
To score dozens of FANTASTIC indie books for only 99¢, visit indiebookblowout.com. While you’re there, register to win a brand new Kindle & up to $100 in Gift Cards (entry form on the site).

BUY MY BOOK HERE: [Click Here]

SEE BOOKS LISTED ON THE INDIE BLOW OUT SITE FOR $0.99 [Click Here]

Famished by Lauren Hammond

2011-09-01T14:50:00.000-07:00

Hello ya'll! Teen book Reviewer NYIA is in the house!

Can I hear you snapping your fingers to welcome her? She's here to give us the 411 on a new book she read by Lauren Hammond.

GOODREADS SAYS:

There is no United States. There is no world. An asteroid has destroyed what the human race knew as earth and The Great Famine has wiped out most of the surviving human population. For the few remaining survivors, food is scarce-- precious--a luxury. A luxury that most humans can’t find.

Seventeen year old Georgina Carver is fortunate. She’s survived the destruction. She eats three times a day while the rest of humanity is plagued by The Great Famine. And she’s safe, hidden away in an underground colony with her family and several other families of survivors.

All of that changes the day she’s randomly selected to be a gatherer. Georgina must leave her safe yet simple world and venture out into a world unknown. A vast, dangerous, destroyed world that could literally eat her alive.

After Georgina is severely injured, her life begins to fall apart. She can’t remember how she got home or what happened to her while she was on the new earth. The boy she is crushing on avoids her and she keeps having visions that involve an unknown person with violet eyes.

As Georgina begins to unravel the truth, it doesn’t take her long to figure out that maybe her safe yet simple life isn’t that safe at all.

NYIA's TWO APPLES:

This is a good dystopian. The main character lives underground in a post apocalypse. Her dad built an underground home for her family. The mean adults sent kids out to scavenge for food with a boy that was her non-crush that she fights against liking. So while they were gathering stuff the boy left her in danger. I like that she still continued with her job even though her partner left her. Then it gets even more dangerous when cannibals were chasing them! Her mom came to the rescue which I liked. But things didn't get better for her after that, she snooped around and walked into another mess that told about the deceit of her people. And I can't give it away for you, but it was a great twist. I gave it 4 out of 5 half-eaten apples. I love the excitement and twist. My only frustration was with the ending, I wanted more. I understand there is supposed to be another book, but I wanted more closure. But I loved the main character and the way she pulled me into the story.

BUY THIS BABY FOR JUST $1.50 in ebook!!! Click Here

GOING TO THE CONS

2011-08-31T06:03:00.000-07:00

Oh this year I had a blast visiting the CONS like Balticon, ComicCon and I have FaerieCon and Katsucon coming up.

It’s a quick way to get my imaginative juices running, meet new people and have a good time. In addition it’s a fun place to do signings. Only problem is I usually purchase more than the profit I make from these events because the stuff they have is so unique and fun.

The prices to these events are reasonable and most of them let you bring younger kids for free.

BALTICON

I started doing this even about 2 years ago. They keep inviting me backa and my family and I love to go. I usually purchase all kinds of art, tidbits, books, and tshirts from this event. They also have some great talks. Not to mention I love seeing all the people dressed up and having fun.

COMIC CON (Baltimore)

This year was my first time attending this event. I got to meet Stan Lee (the lines were horrible). However, the costumes were awesome. The artist there were amazing, inventive and nice. I even met several indie comic book publishers that impressed me with their work. Not to mention the detailed figurines I saw there of all the Marvel heros.

FAERIE CON

This is for me and my daughters. I’ll be signing books here for a few hours, but mostly just evaluating if it’s a good fit for my books. Not only that – who can resist faeries? I can’t wait to see all the decorative Faerie wings and to purchase some figurines for my desk at work.

KATSUCON

Anime at it’s best. It’s a local event and I can’t wait to check this one out. Lot’s of artist, some people dressing up. Talks and interesting displays are to be anticipated. This event I can’t wait to check out.

SO ARE THERE ANY INTERESTING AND FUN FESTIVALS EVENTS YOU SUGGEST?

Colombiana - Movie Review

2011-08-29T04:57:00.000-07:00

Fandango Blurb:
Cataleya, a young woman who has grown up to be an assassin after witnessing the murder of her parents as a child. Turning herself into a professional killer and working for her uncle, she remains focused on her ultimate goal: to hunt down and get revenge on the mobster responsible for her parents' deaths.

My Review:
Whoa! I really was surprised with this vengeance flick. The previews just irritated me with the line they played over and over again, "Never forget where you came from." And that's the one thing I can say was kinda missing in the film - I still didn't know where she came from. As far as depth of character, there wasn't much there. Like the love between her and her father. The grooming of her into an assasin and the stupidity of her leaving a calling sign for the people she killed on the side who murdered her parents. But, hey, it was an awesome ride of slick violence, great techniques and of course - a high body count. My husband and the other guy with us loved the flick. The ladies were even a bit impressed. I was impressed and can say that I turned my head this way and that at how this little slip of a lady was handling the killing business. An action packed, fast passed, revenge flick with a feminine twist. I give it 3.5 out of 5 orchids.

TAKING TIME TO PONDER HELPS

2011-08-26T04:02:00.000-07:00

Well, I’m so proud of myself. I’m coming to the end of writing another new series. It took a lot longer than I planned. A whole extra 30 days more!

Eeek!

But you know what? That’s not always a bad thing. Even though I had a detailed outline of each chapter, and had replayed the entire story over and over in my head maybe thousands of times – it still wasn’t quite ready.

WHY SLOWING DOWN HELPED MY STORY

The extra time I took on this one piece of work helped me make it more unique, more detailed and definitely richer. It also gave me more time to research.

I believe that your writing time is like a writer’s own special cooking time. Some writers rush through the first draft and leave huge plot chuncks out to fix later. But I like to make sure that my plot is thoroughly flushed out in the first draft. That way when I send it out to beta readers they can concentrate on grammar, sentence structure, character development and big gotcha’s.

Now I must be honest in saying my natural stewing time puts me either at 3 months up to 4 months (like this last WIP) of actual writing time. But at the end of it all, I’ve created a much better woven story.

DO YOU STEW WHILE WRITING? OR ANYTHING THAT's MADE THE END PRODUCT BETTER?

The new generation - Guest F. Raushawn

2011-08-23T21:04:00.000-07:00

Please welcome our Teen Guest, F. Raushawn, author of Spectrum, a free short story from Phenomenal One Press, www.phenomenalone.press check it out for free. Spectrum is also a feature short story in Bandits.

NEW GENERATION TAKE OVER

Why does it seem as though children in today’s age seem more technology savvy then, say the children before them? Why do your younger siblings always seem to excel at things that took you years to do? The reason is they are the new generation and the new generation has beaten the older generations from sports all the way to academics no matter what situation they always find at least one way to surpass your obstacles. Maybe it's because it's easier to improve from something that's already been accomplished rather than trying to think that big in the first place. The new generation is taking over but in a way we kind of need that improvement to make man kind better.

This new generation takeover has been going on since the beginning of time. Like a competition to do better than the person before you. I remember as a child I always wanted to exceed my older cousin in whatever sport or activity I played. This actually made me a better player and now I dominate in sports were he could not, thus successfully improving as the new generation.

Although I doesn’t feel good to be surpassed by a younger group being the older and wiser you have to accept it, because as humans alone we find ways to make things that once seemed hard easier to overcome. I know for a fact my younger brother will excel in places where I've peeked. I'll make sure of it. Which is why we live in the world we do today if nobody ever exceeded anyone else we would still be living in the stone ages. So if I have to take a hit to my pride in order for my future children to live in a better world then so, be it. Long live the new generations (ha-ha).

Fright Night - Movie Review

2011-08-22T04:49:00.000-07:00

I have to admit it, I have a Vampire addiction. It's a secret one, and started long ago.

Fright Night is a remake of a Summer 1985 classic cult flick that I LOVED (okay, movie choices back when I was a teen was limited). It was one of these vampire flicks I'd watch over and over again.

Well, Hollywood decided to remake it ... and,

Here's the BLURB from IMDb:
A teenager suspects that his new neighbor is a vampire. (yep, that's all they said)

MY REVIEW:

Just so you know, I didn't have high expectations here and...well, the movie was just okay. It was however, an improvement over it's predecessor. This version had a twist like the movie Disturbia where the villain was handsome and a little more sadistic than the goofy vamp that was in the first flick. Not to mention this one had much better special effects. Charlie - got to love him, accidentally sees his neighbor, who is a vampire, bite a women. Then a dead body is found. This leads to his seemingly psychotic obsession with his neighbor being a vamp. And it all heats up from there. No much gore, but a lot of blood and blown up bodies. Teens would think it is just okay since kids nowadays like more brutal horror flicks. But my teen son gave it a 3 our of 5 fangs. I however, give it only 2 fangs out of 5.

Yay! I'm at the Baltimore Comic Con This Weekend

2011-08-20T06:45:00.000-07:00

This is my first time going. But I heard about it last year and was like? Why didn't I know that's happening in my town. Now just so you know, my husband is a HUGE comic book fan (we happen to have over 200 comics that he hides away in our garage). So when I told him that STAN LEE was going to be there he was like, "I'm Going."

I'll be there giving out free books, and searching for an artist for my MG Graphic novel of Explorer X-Alpha.

But I'll also be getting an autograph from Stan Lee, and going to the costume contest which I hear is a hoot.

SO? HAVE YOU DONE ANY OF THE CONS? BALTICON? RAVENCON? COMICON?

Guest KL Brady an INSPIRATION

2011-08-18T04:32:00.001-07:00

KL Brady, author of the BUM MAGNET, who went from self-publishing success to a dual success with traditional and self-pubbing stopped by my writer's critique group on Wed. to share the wealth

She talked about ACCEPTING CRITICISM, which is one of the first steps of becoming a great writer. Her completion of her novel in 4 months let to her submitting it to contest. She admitted that her work was far from ready and through months and months of revisions, ripped up critiques, she made her baby shine.

THE QUERY MAIDEN, she also talked about sending out over 150+ query letters only to get rejected over and over again before taking her plunge into self-pubbing.

Her journey as an INDIE Author/publisher kicked off through lots of hard work, endless marketing, staying up late nights. But it all paid off with awards and great sales.

EDITORS come a calling after she gained some momentum. Literally, she was approached by email then a call.

PICKING AGENTS then was simple since she was a sure thing.

Now she has an agent, a great book deal with Pocket Books, and is still writing. Her YA series hit the street as a self-pub endeavor, but who knows... soon that too may be picked up.

INSPIRATION was, "time waits for no one" and "never give up" is her mantra.

Check out her website and books: http://ping.fm/i9oAa

Places You'll Find Me.

2011-08-15T14:23:00.000-07:00

Hiya!!! I'm on the road again.

Check out this pic I took on the Big Island in Hawaii.

WHERE YOU CAN FIND ME IN PERSON ...I'll be giving away books too!

Baltimore ComicCon (Sat and Sun) August 20-21st. I'll be giving away books and scoping out artist for my Graphic Novel for Explorer X - Beta.

Baltimore Book Festival (Sat) September 24th. I'll be doing a buy one get one free special and signing books.

NAIBA Fall Festival (Sat) My books will be displayed by MBPA (Mid Atlantic Book Publisher Association)

Collingswood Book Festival (Sat) October 1st. I'll be doing my buy one get one free special here also.

Central Pennsylvania Book Festival (Sat) October 22nd. I'll be doing the buy one get one free here, as well as giving out ebook coupons for free ebook copy of your hardcover book.

Virginia Library Association - (Sat-Sun) October 21-22. My book will be displayed by Association Book Exchange.

VIRTUAL VISITS

Kindle Daily - BANDITS is on display, Dec. 22 and 29th, see excerpt and it's on sale for $0.99 ebook.

The Soundry - Kindle Party! Tune in for reading of The Pack and sale of all my books in ebook format. 7pm Reading Sept 24

Bookstores should be like Netflix or swank playrooms

2011-08-10T18:20:00.000-07:00

With the closing of Borders it makes me wonder if bookstores should change their business plans.

Netflix took the movie rental business by storm. So I figure maybe bookstores should start thinking outside of the box.

Find a need - meet the need.

So now with all the fun places to hang out closing, maybe the new age bookstores could be like....

THE BOOKBABE BUSINESS PLAN

A book system like NETFLIX and allow customers to pay a monthly fee to download books, stream books, or even have books sent to them (new or used). That way I would get all the new books I've been waiting for - sent to me on release day. If I don't want to keep the book, I send it back in with the prepaid postage envelop in good condition. If I want to keep the book, I pay an extra $2.00 fee to add to my library. Now, for those people that are ereader fanatics, I would love to be able to purchase those new pricey ebooks from my fav authors for a reduced price. Keep it to read it for a week before downloading my next one. Of course I don't mind if they take the book back off of my device when I'm finished reading it.

THE PLAYROOM BOOKSTORE

Well, there are still a lot of peeps that love to hang out in bookstores. Would be great if the bookstores had a kids playroom. Also, a swankie coffee bar - Starbucks top grade. Also, a book buying plan would be great where I can pay a set price for a number of books a month and have my fav books waiting for me when I got there. The place should be filled with great screens of streaming book trailers. Also, could have ebook parties where when you show up you get early dibs on best sellers.

SO YOU GOT ANY IDEAS ON HOW BOOKSTORES CAN STAY AFLOAT?

Rise of The Planet Of The Apes - Movie Review

2011-08-07T20:02:00.000-07:00

IMDb Blurb:

An origin story set in present day San Francisco, where man's own experiments with genetic engineering lead to the development of intelligence in apes and the onset of a war for supremacy.

My Review:

I have to forewarn you I used to run home from school to watch The Planet of the Apes when I was a kid. But the truth was, I figured it was a far off planet in a distant galaxy. Well, this one was one my husband really wanted to see. Me, I didn't want to see it so much, but...I must say, I enjoyed it as a pre-qual to The Planet of the Apes. Now, you know though that Draco Malfoy kid from the Harry Potter movies was in this. But I must say, the best actor in the entire movie was...the monkey, Caesar. I actually fell in love with him. I identified with his struggle and I cheered for him. I took my kids also to see this one and we all agreed that although it got off to a somewhat slow start, it earned a 4 out of 5 monkeys because we just couldn't help but fall in love with Caesar.

If you want to see the first movie, Planet of the Apes, which was okay.

Guess What...You Don't Own Twitter

2011-08-04T23:06:00.000-07:00

Now with twitter being a powerful tool for chatting, marketing, getting information and getting to know people, cattiness abounds.

I'm working with MBPA to start a twitter chat surrounding publishing and the small press publishers who are trying to get their hustle on. That means we will be using a HASHTAG #MBPA and would like for all that use it to only chat about like topics.

But you know what?.... WE DON'T OWN TWITTER so we can only hope that courtesy abounds when people play in the same space. What will we do if someone uses the hashtag that we decide to use (no we didn't purchase exclusive use of it, no we don't own it, no we weren't the first people to invent it...and we don't threaten to turn them into twitter police for being spammers if they are sharing content)

Well if someone uses the hashtag we create for our own marketing, communicating and promotional purposes, we'll ask them nicely and just go on. Why? Because....WE DON'T own twitter.

*wink*

So, when you set up a hashtag for your organization, business, promotional purposes. Give the same courtesy that you would like others to give you and realize that twitter is a place where everyone can hang out. Also, use of any word is the right of all that show up. Just have fun with it and don't take social media too seriously.

WHAT ARE SOME Social Media Possessiveness you've seen?

LA Banks, Best Selling Author of Vampire Huntress Series Passed Away

2011-08-03T06:12:00.000-07:00

It is with a great, heavy and sad heart I share that, Banks died on August 2, 2011, aged 51.

She wrote romance, women's fiction, crime suspense, dark fantasy/horror and non-fiction. Her pseudonyms were LA Banks, Leslie Esdaile, Leslie Banks and Leslie Esdaile Banks.

HER AUTHOR PAGE IS HERE: http://www.leslieesdailebanks.com/about.php

I was awed to meet her when I recruited her for a spot as a chat guest on YALITCHAT and then she was so gracious to be a guest at the Maryland Writer's Conference in April this year where I got to meet her.

When she first saw me, she gave me the biggest hug and THANKS lil' ole me for inviting her.

SHE WAS A GIVING AND WARM SPIRIT OF A WOMAN.

Please support her family buy purchasing her book (She self-published her YA Series) and that money would go directly to her family.

HERE'S MY DAUGHTER'S REVIEW OF HER BOOK - SHADOW WALKER, NYIA

SHADOW WALKER Synopsis from Goodreads:

Set in a post-apocalyptic world following the Armageddon, in Shadow Walker, Sarah and the teenage children of the world’s Guardians of the Light must learn to hone their extra-sensory talents to one day join in the battle with their parents.

While they are secreted away in the Temt Tchaas Academy, (aka Neteru Academy), these students must learn to fight evil as well as learn to resist the temptation of fighting with each other. Although these young people have super powers, they still struggle with the same dramas and insecurities like any other high school student – and just because their parents may be superhuman doesn’t mean their parents are perfect. Far from it. That only makes life more confusing, as peer pressure, budding romances, decisions about whether or not to snitch, or whether or not to use one’s supernatural gifts for personal gain must be sorted out.

In this coming of age story, Sarah Rivera and her twin brother, Alejandro, must figure out when to use their wings or fangs, how to get along with their compound siblings, how to fit in with others in a huge new school, and perhaps most importantly, how to pick their battles to always fight for what is right.

NYIA’s REVIEW:

I’ve never read anything like this before. And I loved it! My mom got this on ebook for just $3.99 (she told me to tell you to pick it up on smashwords (http://www.smashwords.com/b/33128) and started reading it and loved Sarah. The kids talk in slang, which made the book really unique to me, and made the kids sound realistic. Sarah scares easy but doesn’t realize she is a Shadow Walker, one of the most strongest guardians there is to fight the evil ones. This world is filled with vampires, zombies, demons, werewolves and angelic mixes with magical creatures. It was very original and interesting enough to keep me read. There was a little bit of romance, but it wasn’t really a serious one like in most of the teen books. I would have liked to see more of that, but there was so much other exciting stuff going on in the book that I didn’t miss it not having the love triangle that most books have. I liked how Sarah grew into the hero even though she was scared so I gave this 5 out of 5 FIREWORKS.

HERE ARE SOME OF HER OTHER SERIES:

Crimson Moon

Vampire Huntress and Shadow Walker

Romances

J.K. Rowling Goes Rogue!

2011-08-01T18:46:00.000-07:00

Quote from MBPA Newsletter:
"J.K. Rowling went rogue, bringing out the eBook versions of her bazillion-selling Harry Potter series as an independent publisher (and wiping out the indy pub stigma in one fell swoop -- Thanks, J.K.!)."

SAY WHAT?!!

This is what you get:

An interesting spin and ebook interactive format. YEAH BABY!

FINALLY the Harry Potter series will be in e-books!

You can get it in e-books and audio books with multiple languages being offered at Pottermore.com, it has it all social networking with a twist of computer gaming and an online store.

"You can't hold back progress," Rowling said. "E-books are here and they are here to stay."

No new Harry Potter series though. However, she is releasing an 18,000 word snippet of new material highlighting characters and settings.

Yep, she is selling the ebooks in the new slick format direct from her own site, not on Amazon but Rowlings says the books will be compatible with e-readers such as Kindle, Sony's Reader -tada and the iPad.

COWBOYS VS ALIENS - A surprise Fun Ride

2011-07-29T15:12:00.000-07:00

A SURPRISE ADVENTURE!

FANDANGO BLURB:

A stranger with no memory of his past stumbles into the hard desert town of Absolution. The people of Absolution don't welcome strangers, and nobody makes a move on its streets unless ordered by the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde (Ford). But Absolution is about to experience fear it can scarcely comprehend as the desolate city is attacked by marauders from the sky. Now, the stranger they rejected is their only hope for salvation. As this gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he's been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against the alien force.

MY REVIEW:

I love westerns! But I have to admit, the title and the previews of this one didn't impress me at all. My husband wanted to see this and it was his turn to pick the movie for our date night.

We have this sick ache for the excitement of our youth and therefore rush out to go to the opening midnight showings of new movies. Mainly in the summer we indulge this addiction, but hey, it's fun.

So I sat down to watch this movie, just hoping to stay awake, and I have to admit - it more than kept me awake. There was a bit of a mystery, a great dose of Western fun, and some corny parts that was what I had expected. But there were some parts where I jumped in my seats, some where I laughed, some where I smiled and then cheered. And I wasn't alone either, there was a packed house in the theater on Thurs night midnight and people were engaged then committed to the movies. I give this 3.5 spaceships.

What Can a Publicist Do For You?

2011-07-28T04:37:00.000-07:00

PLEASE WELCOME MY GUEST, Lauren!!!!

Being an author is hard work. You have to write your book, edit your book, and now they want you to market it as well (while you’re most likely still living life and writing something new)? I’m not a published author…but I do write, and to be published one day is a goal of mine. However, I’ve worked with various authors on many levels of their promotion and I know how time-consuming and confusing it can be.

Therefore, I would recommend a publicist. No, it’s not for everyone. Some people are quite capable of promoting on their own or just prefer it. And I know publishing companies often do what they can, but if your book isn’t a TOP PICK for them…it can get lost in the shuffle. It’s not your fault, right? So think about hiring an independent publicist, which is what I am. I’m relatively new but I’ve already worked with many authors in the past (and through my business, Shooting Stars Promotion).

But back to you, the writer. What can a publicist do for you anyway?
Here are some reasons you should think about branching out (and yes, these all apply to me):

1. They’re on your side. They want you to succeed on some level.
2. They have less books and authors to focus on than a publishing company so you get more of their attention.
3. They are often happy to work with unique avenues of promotion instead of over-covering the same places.
4. They can be cheaper than you think, as long as you do your research.
5. They are easier to get a hold of when you need them.
6. They are happy to work with your own ideas/suggestions.

Here are some things that I like to do with my own clients:

1. Work with businesses that sell products related to client’s book…cross-promote.
2. Find the best blogs to promote on and not just all YA blogs (you’re hitting much of the same people).
3. Make sure my client isn’t overspending for anything. While you do pay me, I don’t want you wasting money.
4. Try and find similar authors/books you could cross-promote with.
5. Figure out the best forms of swag to use for your particular novel.
6. Target other websites, newspapers, magazines…if applicable.

I’ll be the first to admit that not everyone needs a publicist, but I think it could be a big help to a lot of people. You just need to do your research and find someone you want to work with that fits your budget.

To learn more about me and my business, visit my website:

www.laurenashleybecker.com. I also blog at www.shootingstarsmag.blogspot.com and www.letsgetbeyondtolerance.blogspot.com. You can contact me through any of these sites.

Voices of Dragons by Carrie Vaughn

2011-07-26T03:52:00.000-07:00

Yay! NYIA our TEEN BOOK REVIEWER has been on a reading frenzy this summer!

Amazon Blurb:

In an alternate 21st century, teens have cell phones and cars, and worry about who will take them to homecoming and whether or not to have sex. They also have dragon drills—just in case the creatures cross the border and attack. After World War II, the dragons, who had been in hiding for centuries, reemerged from myth into real life. Humans, still on edge from the trauma of the war, struck out at them, causing a conflict in which many on both sides died. A truce was reached, a border was created, and a tentative peace was established. Seventeen-year-old Kay lives on the border of Dragon. After a fall during an ill-advised solo climb, she is rescued by Artegal, a dragon who is studying human language. Over the next weeks, a tentative friendship grows into a bond between them. When the border is breached and a conflict begins, they must rely on their friendship to repair the damage before too many lives are lost.

NYIA'S TEEN BOOK REVIEW:

The Voices of Dragons had a great concept. The character Kay was likeable. She was adventurous and wasn't afraid of being herself. Her friend Jon was also likable; him and Kay seemed like a great match. A lot of the time the main character, Kay, wasn't actually apart of the action unfolding. When the climax of the book took place, the reader heard about most of the outside action from the news that Kay was watching. The ending didn't seem to solve the problem either, which kind of frustrated me. The whole dragon part didn't seem to play that much of a role because it seemed to have parts where it didn't even come across the main character's mind. I would have liked to see more of that. As it happens whenever Kay thought about the dragon, then she went to see the dragon. It was very predictable. Also, the history behind the story was intruiging. Overall I give the book a 3.5 out of 5 dragons.

CAPTAIN AMERICA - Movie Review

2011-07-22T13:30:00.000-07:00

Oh my FREAKIN' GOSH!!!!!! Okay I'm totally gonna skip to the best part of the movie....after the credits roll, you get an AWESOME tease....THE AVENGERS PREVIEW!!!!!

FANDANGO BLURB:

After being deemed unfit for military service, Steve Rogers volunteers for a top secret research project that turns him into Captain America, a superhero dedicated to defending America's ideals.

MY REVIEW

Okay, I'm biased and invested. I've seen all of the Avengers movies and I have enjoyed them. No...they weren't bada** (shut your mouth!) flicks that make me want to watch them over and over again. But, they are entertaining and kept my interest throughout. Not to mention --- who doesn't dig a hero (even though the villain stole the show in Thor...that a whole other story).

Sorry, I digressed. Here's my review:

I like this. Steve Rogers is my type of character. A boy bullied, beat up, kicked out, put upon and everything you can think of. But you know what - he never gave up. This movie covers the story of Captain America (the past him) back in the 40's and the villain is a bit quirky. Also, I would have really liked a bit more depth to the story, but it was still a good one. As far as it lining up to the comic book depiction it did so for the most part. There were little off points. Like Captain America was a king with Hand-To-Hand combat. But in the movie it was all about the shield. I give this movie 3.5 stars with stripes. And just so you know, I FREAKIN' totally enjoyed the tease trailer for THE AVENGERS!

The Faerie Ring by Kiki Hamilton

2011-07-21T03:58:00.000-07:00

Please welcome TEEN BOOK REVIEWER, Nyia!

She is reviewing another great book I got from the BEA conference.

Goodreads:
The year is 1871, and Tiki has been making a home for herself and her family of orphans in a deserted hideaway adjoining Charing Cross Station in central London. Their only means of survival is by picking pockets. One December night, Tiki steals a ring, and sets off a chain of events that could lead to all-out war with the Fey. For the ring belongs to Queen Victoria, and it binds the rulers of England and the realm of Faerie to peace. With the ring missing, a rebel group of faeries hopes to break the treaty with dark magic and blood—Tiki’s blood.

Unbeknownst to Tiki, she is being watched—and protected—by Rieker, a fellow thief who suspects she is involved in the disappearance of the ring. Rieker has secrets of his own, and Tiki is not all that she appears to be. Her very existence haunts Prince Leopold, the Queen’s son, who is driven to know more about the mysterious mark that encircles her wrist.

Prince, pauper, and thief—all must work together to secure the treaty…

NYIA TEEN BOOK REVIEW:

The Faerie Ring was exciting and had a great plot. The whole idea about a truce between faerie and humans held on a cursed ring was so exciting. I loved the main character, Tiki, and how she acted like a real thief and didn't trust anyone that she had not grown up with. It was interesting seeing her relationship with Raeker, her fellow thief, grow as she had to try to find a way to keep the piece between the faeries and humans. The villain as you would say was very diabolical; she used Tiki's family and her relationships against her to get the ring. Prince Leopold, who the ring was in a way stolen from, was very keen and did use his clues to figure out what was going on. The author did a great job at making everything real and uncut. I really liked that Tiki was the center of the action and didn't take a backseat to anything. She followed her instincts and that worked in her benefit allowing her to make the right choices. Overall I would give this book a 4 out 5 rings. The only thing I didn't like was that it seemed like Prince Leopard was suppose to play a big role, but it ended up that he wasn't that important.

Promotional Burnout

2011-07-19T04:15:00.000-07:00

With the face of publishing changing, many authors are finding themselves having to hustle to get their own promotions for their books on the roll.

One of the main complaints is burnout. Lot’s of work to do, but only a few (sometimes just the author) to do it.

WHAT LEADS TO IT

The major way to get to burnout and fast is – NO PLANNING.

When an author doesn’t plan how they are going to promote their books they do wild and crazy things to get the word out. Things that may turn off readers and waste time and money.

No pacing or scheduling of task.

When you create a marketing plan for a book, scheduling out in person events, blog tours, ads, and exposure is a major player in making sure promotions is a fun thing instead of an exhausting exercise.

Pointing out the valuable exposure over useless exposure.

Some authors in their zeal to get exposure step on many toes along the way. They spam others blogs, they spam emails they make inappropriate promo sales of their books in the weirdest places. All of these things can backfire – but most of all they add to the burnout.

HOW TO PREVENT IT

Burnout can be prevented with proper planning and scheduling. This is something I personally learned over time. Also, if you books shelf life is – forever (which it is because when you – the author – are given back the rights to it, you can repub it if you want), then you have a long time to promote it.

Create a Book Marketing Plan

Research what others with books in your genre, your demographics area and are authors like you are doing to sell their book. Break down the cost/investment you are willing to make in time and in money to promote.

Pace yourself.

Take the time before the book comes out to give it proper buzz (about 6 months) then schedule the days, times of the week you are willing to spend on hands on promotions (in person tours, blog tours, twitter promo, FB promo, etc)

Take time off.

Don’t allow burnout to creep up on you. Schedule in vacations and use auto tools to help you maintain your social media presence and do online ads during this time to keep your name out there circulating.

Invite Others To Help.

Rome wasn't built in a day - nor by just one person. Getting a little help from your fiends is always a great way to drop off some steam.

SO HOW DO YOU COMBAT PROMO BURNOUT? OR BURNOUT period?

Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Pt. 2 Review

2011-07-15T05:57:00.000-07:00

I'm am certifiably a nut...I went to 2 movie theatres last night to get tickets to this movie. After seeing lines of people dressed as Witches and Harry Potter cast offs, we finally found a tucked away theatre that we could purchase tickets (we did this 5 hours before the showtime.)

FANDANGO:
The end begins as Harry, Ron, and Hermione go back to Hogwarts to find and destroy Voldemort's final horcruxes, but when Voldemort finds out about their mission, the biggest battle begins and life as they know it will never be the same again.

MY REVIEW:

I really enjoyed this one much better than the last one. Why, it was excitement from the moment it started until the end. You definitely had to see the Part 1 movie to get this one. They again stayed closely to the book with some scenes shortened. However, I must say I really enjoyed the ride and am a little sad that Harry will not be meeting me each year at the theatres. I give this a 4.5 wands out of 5.

Places you can find my books this month

2011-07-14T04:31:00.001-07:00

Just because I've been on vacation, my books haven't. My in person tours have slowed until the Baltimore Bookfest (which is one of my favorite events).

But you can check out my babies in the blogsphere:

Writerly Wednesday invited BANDITS to drop in.

The Frugal eReader gave away copies of The Pack

Book Blogs has Ad for The Pack

FrugalFinds is doing a giveaway of The Pack

So check out some of the places my babies are hanging out - you just may be able to win one for free.

Here's some fun depictions of my characters from The Pack and Bandits:

Original Sin by Lisa Desrochers

2011-07-12T06:06:00.000-07:00

Amazon Blub:

Luc Cain was born and raised in Hell, but he isn't feeling as demonic as usual lately... thanks to Frannie Cavanaugh and the unique power she never realized she had. But you can't desert Hell without consequences, and suddenly Frannie and Luc find themselves targeted by the same demons who used to be Luc's allies.

Left with few options, Frannie and Luc accept the protection of Heaven and one of its most powerful angels, Gabe. Unfortunately, Luc isn't the only one affected by Frannie, and it isn't long before Gabe realizes that being around her is too tempting. Rather than risk losing his wings, he leaves Frannie and Luc under the protection of her recently-acquired guardian angel. Which would be fine, but Gabe is barely out the door before an assortment of demons appears - and theyre not leaving without dragging Luc back to Hell with them.

Hell won't give up and Heaven won't give in. Frannie's guardian exercises all the power he has to keep them away, but the demons are willing to hurt anyone close to Frannie in order to get what they want. It will take everything she has and then some to stay out of Hell's grasp. And not everyone will get out of it alive.

NYIA's Teen Reviewer's Opinion:

I can’t wait to tell you how much I loved this book! I give this book 4.5 stars out of 5. The book is exciting, drama filled, and has a nice romantic touch to the whole story. The main character Frannie and Luc make the most adorable couple. Their romance is a play off of the bad boy turned good by the girl. Luc is an ex-demon, so now he lives a human life like Frannie. Frannie has a guardian angel named Matt who used to be her brother. Between these three drama unfolds as they fight temptation so that they can stay protected from the other demons who are trying to get to Frannie. I love how Luc really is concerned for Frannie and they both seem to really love each other. The real twist is that Gabe comes in again to steal the girl. Overall this book has fighting and romance...What more could you want? The only thing I didn't like is that sometimes things got a little corny, but that didn't happen that much. The ending was very exciting and hope there is another book.

Transformers Dark of The Moon

2011-07-09T04:51:00.000-07:00

Fandango Blurb:

Sam Witwicky (LaBeouf) taking his first tenuous steps into adulthood while remaining a reluctant human ally of Optimus Prime. The film centers around the space race between the U.S.S.R. and the USA, suggesting there was a hidden Transformers role in it all that remains one of the planet's most dangerous secrets. The villain of the third film will be Shockwave.

My Review:

I really wasn't expecting much out of this movie. Why? I mean because how many times can they get it right? But you know what...they nailed it - again! They actually spent a little time building up enough story to get you to like Sam again. But there were some parts that looked thrown together and yet again - totally unbelievable, but hey, this is a movie you go to for fun and action (it wasn't quite as funny this time though). So if you don't want to spend time at the beach, the park or the pool. And you want some action and great special 3D effects, check this one out. I give it 4 out of 5 cubes.

Where I got my world building ideas for Bandits

2011-07-06T01:32:00.000-07:00

I've been in Hawaii for 2 weeks. A revisiting of the place I first got the idea for the world I would build for Bandits. Of course I morphed it up a bit, but I gotta tell you Hawaii is right here on Earth and is....in a word, amazing!

SOMETHINGS I HAD TO SEE TO BELIEVE

The green sand beach. See the picture above. That is it and I actually four wheel drove there with my husband, oldest son and friends.

The black sand beaches. I had a huge turtle walk up right next to me on this beach. The water was clear and warm.

Cliff diving - my son and his friend actually did this and it was just the most awesome thing I've ever seen.

Waipio Valley, is just like being in paradise. Waterfalls, black sand beach, plush surroundings that smell like sweet flowers. A horse actually came up to our car, looked at us then veered into the brush.

The Road to Hana, the most beautiful drive (besides the one we took to the Florida Keys) that revealed more beauty than is imaginable with each curve. This was the most curvy road I've ever in my life traveled.

Volcano National Park, when we came here 3 years ago we were actually able to see Lava flow - do you believe that! It was ...like wow! and if you read Bandits, you'll know that's where I morphed Daniel's family trove from.

Mauna Loa, the observatory where the telescopes stand above the clouds was another beautiful tidbit I used in my world building. Although not in this version of Bandits, stay tuned for more.

WHAT THINGS HAVE YOU SEEN THAT HAVE BEEN USED IN YOUR WORLD BUILDING or DAY DREAMING?

DREAM LIFE by Lauren Mechling

2011-07-03T11:54:00.000-07:00

NYIA - Our Teen Book Reviewer is here to talk about the latest read in her library.

Book Blurb-Amazon:

Picking up where Dream Girl (2008) left off, Claire is learning to command her ability to see into the future through her dreams. In addition to figuring out how to decipher her psychic gift, Claire is secretly dating her best friend Becca’s brother. Turns out that Becca belongs to a secret society of do-good teen philanthropists whose mission is to spruce up the city anonymously—but someone is out to expose the group, and it’s up to Claire to thwart the plot. Teen girls looking for a light read with elements of mystery, adventure, romance, and life in high society will appreciate this satisfying stand-alone sequel.

NYIA's Teen Review:

Just so you know, I haven't read book 1 in this series, but I didn't feel like I missed anything from book 1 by reading Dream Life, the second book in this series.

It was an interesting mystery book and involved a lot of unsolved problems, but at times the book could get rather slow as the story is woven. There were long amounts of time where it seemed like nothing happens, but the information gathered during that reading time is important. The mystery could have been more of a gotcha, but it was okay. In the end Claire didn't even stay in the "secret" club that was helping the community and decided to go her own way apart from her friend. The Blue Moon had this enemy club called the Elle House, but those girls didn't even seem to do anything. Basically the mystery and dreams didn't seem to give a lot of struggle or make it seem like all hope was lost especially since Claire's grandma just seemed to always give the answers to everything Claire was challenged with. It's an easy read if you like mysteries. I did like the overall plot and thought it could have been played out better. The side romance with Claire and Becca's, brother was adorable and I liked that the author didn't keep it as a "side" romance not making it the main focus. Overall this book was nice and if you want a little bit of teen drama while liking mysteries then this is your book. I give this book a 3 out of 5 stars.

Nothing is Ever Forgotten on the WWW

2011-07-01T15:01:00.000-07:00

As an engineer who has built large applications and databases, I sometimes laugh at the naïveté of travelers on the world ‘wild’ web. It’s not a safe place out there. Every site or ‘street’ you turn down has the ability to haunt you for life.

YOU CAN’T RUN FROM YOUR PAST

With all of the advances of socializing, writing, chatting and traveling on the web there is the temptation to drop your manners and be wild. Well remember, ANYTHING you put out there on the World ‘Wild’ Web – NEVER EVER gets destroyed.

That means that twenty years after you blasted out your parents, took naked pictures for your boyfriend, cursed out your boss on a rant site – it can be found.

When you delete content from a site, it does not get deleted from the many replicated data sites that google and other search engines or crawlers have. That means that meta-data or subset of information about whatever you posted is held or copied in the many different search engine databases.

For example: Let’s say you uploaded a picture on photobucket. You named that picture um ‘naughty name’ then after about a year, you delete it from your photobucket website. Now if anyone searched for that item in a year, and the search engine grabbed it – the picture and description may have been copied and saved. So years later when you put in a search – you have an 80% chance that it will pop back up.

WATCH OUT FOR PREDATORS

I know, I know…you’ve heard this before. Well I am here to tell you that predators are still out there. So set up your social networking accounts with proper privacy settings, and check those private settings continuously. Also, DON’T ever post your personal information (even though someone can plop in your name and find out anything they want about you on peoplesearch – scary thought huh?)

REMEMBER – YOU HAVE A FUTURE

When you are surfing the web, speaking your opinion, or having a wild time at Spring Break – remember you have a future. If something questionable is placed on the web about you – your prospective employer, spouse – even kid may see it. So just for grins and giggles – search yourself on the web. You may be surprised at what you find.

Dress like a star or get served?

2011-06-28T00:33:00.000-07:00

Having teenagers in the house is fun. It makes me realize that not much has changed since I was a kid. Some things are more out in the open, but we all know that history repeats itself. Unfortunately, when it repeats – it’s usually worse the second time around.

Designer Only

When I was in High School, if you didn’t wear designer jeans, shoes or clothes – you were definitely not in the ‘in’ crowd. Usually, your day would start off with an inspection of your clothes by your peers and if you didn’t have on the right digs you were teased all day. Matter of fact, every day you’d pay for that one infraction of dressing different from the crowd.

Today is no different. My son insists that his tennis shoes be designer. That means I’m paying about $100 plus per pair. I have four kids and just can’t afford it. So, what’s a mom to do? Well, I go to the flea market where they sell new shoes but at a price I can haggle over. It saves me about $30 or so bucks to purchase them this way, but it allows me to buy him those designer jeans, t-shirts and hats he desires. Now my kid is no slouch, he works and saves his money for these coveted items. His insatiable desire to look cool didn’t hit him until High School, but in the inner city where I grew up – babies wore designer wear. Huh? Yep, you heard me, in certain communities people will spend their money on designer clothes for their kid and not even have a car of their own.

Cool Cars Only

The other thing required by a cool teen, seems to be a nice car. Now that doesn’t mean it has to be new or even a sports car. It means it has to have a decent paint job and be comfortable for friends to ride in. However, when I grew up – if you had a dang car you were cool. Considering I spent tons of my travel time on buses and metro trains.

My first car was a bright yellow, Chevette. You couldn’t tell me nothing about my baby. I got it when I was 17yr old. I’d saved $400 and paid half of the sticker price towards it. My mom came up with the other half.

Now my kid wants a newer car. Well, I’m mom and want to get him everything he desires, but for a bargain. So I’m going to the car auctions to pick him up a stick shift (my evil plan is that he won’t be able to talk on the cell phone or text if he has to shift gears to drive).

Dangers

Many of times while I was growing up, I realized that kid’s that desired these expensive totem’s of coolness were forced to steal, barter, borrow or work in order to get these things that helped them to fit in. My cousin had even gotten beat up over his shoes. Hopefully, in time being cool will mean being different. Creating your own style and setting trends. Unfortunately though, history just has a way of repeating.

AUTHOR CONFESSIONS – THE EVIL THINGS WE DO

2011-06-22T10:56:00.000-07:00

AUTHOR CONFESSIONS – THE EVIL THINGS WE DO

I’m hosting YALITCHAT tonight (use twitter hashtag #yalitchat Wed, 9pm 6/23) to follow. I’ll be hosting Author Confessions where we all confess to the evil things we’ve done to our main characters.

WHY WE ARE SO MEAN TO OUR MC’s

Let’s face it, growth is painful. Very painful. In order to develop and grow our characters through the readers eyes – we must create trails, tribulations and odd situations for them. Those situations should be realistically displayed and work within the story but should be used to show either strength, growth, reaction, thoughts, or set ups that build the relationship with the character and the reader.

Also, we authors create these situations because it’s just darn fun :-D Oops! Did I say that?

MY CONFESSIONS

Well, if you can’t make it tonight to the chat, you may as well here the truth from me personally.

Here’s my confessions:

EXPLORER X – ALPHA (Middle Grade Series) – I confess to genetically altering my Aadi (my MC), making his parents betray him by keeping an awful secret, cutting him, enslaving him, blackmailing him, altering his body, kidnapping his crush, capturing him in war…to name just a few.

THE PACK – (Upper YA) – I confess to making Shamira (my MC) blind, kidnapping her brother, shooting her, stabbing her, beating her up, trying to blow her up with landmines…sigh, I’m so bad.

BANDITS – (Upper YA) – I confess to murdering Daniel’s father (my MC) trying to eat him, burning him, breaking his fingers, sucking the blood out of his brother and girlfriend, kidnapping his family, trying to burn him in a boiling sea…and I haven’t even really gotten started with all the naughty things I’ve done to him.
Truly I would be sorry if doing these things didn’t create my flawed, a bit on the angry side characters and turn them into heros – but it was just too darned fun!

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO YOUR CHARACTERS?

The Green Lantern - Movie Review

2011-06-20T15:41:00.000-07:00

Blurb from Fandango:

A test pilot embraces his destiny as a cosmic superhero in Casino Ropyale director Martin Campbell's adaptation of the popular DC Comics series. Ever since he saw his fearless father perish in a tragic aviation mishap, all Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) could think about was flying -- it was the only thing the brash, cocky, and irresponsible test pilot ever truly excelled at. Little did he realize he was destined for something much bigger. Somewhere out in space, a powerful force of evil known as Parallax is spreading fear and destruction; the only hope for defeating Parallax is the Green Lantern Corps, a group of intergalactic warriors powered by the force of will. When legendary Green Lantern Abin Sur (Temuera Morrison) is sent hurtling toward planet Earth after a deadly encounter with Parallax, his ring chooses Hal to continue the fight. The ring spirits our hero away to the Green Lantern’s home planet of Oa for training. The first human ever to receive the honor of becoming a Green Lantern, Hal is viewed with scorn by the league’s leader, Sinestro (Mark Strong), who trains him alongside the hulking Kilowog (voice of Michael Clarke Duncan). Later, on planet Earth, frail scientist Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard) becomes infected with Parallax’s evil while performing an autopsy on Abin Sur, and uses his newfound powers to stake claim on Carol Ferris (Blake Lively), Hal’s lifelong friend and fellow test pilot. When Hal learns that Parallax plans to consume all life on Earth to gain the energy needed to conquer Oa, he begins looking inward for the courage to defeat the malevolent force and embrace his destiny as a super-powered peacekeeper. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

THE TRAILER:

MY Review:

I will forewarn you - I'm partial to the color Green. It's my favorite color - always has been. Now, I am also partial to super heroes and especially Marvel Super Heroes. But I have to say, this movie impressed me. Why? Well it had to do with the main character Hal. He was irresponsible, most unlikely to be a hero but he became one - so much so, that I even teared up at his final hero moment. Now don't go to the movie thinking this is a deeply moving film that is all the rave, but it is enjoyable. The only problem I had was it seemed a bit too short. The villains include three people - some who are obvious, another that just kinda appears, but one that I really didn't expect (excuse me here but I must be honest - I didn't read the comics I only watched the cartoons). This movie in my book gets a 3.5 lantern. The positives was action, fun characters, a flawed hero, a sad villain, an unrealized villain (you have to stay til after the credits role to reveal this one) and a blush love affair.

How Phenomenal One Press Got Started

2011-06-17T05:50:00.000-07:00

The owner of my small press is my husband. He’d been in sales like – forever, even got a degree in Marketing. When I started my writing endeavor, got my first contract from a small press, he figured, we could do a better job at it. You know what – we did.

Here’s how we did it.

START YOUR OWN SMALL PRESS – Don’t just self pub

Phenomenal One Press was started with the full intention of building up a list of authors besides just moi’ (which we do, F. Raushawn who is our teen author of SPECTRUM - a free read you can find on our webpage www.phenomenalonepress.com check it out). But in order to do that correctly, we had to do research. Remember, every publishers business model is different, if you decide to go this road, sit down and think about what you want to accomplish and how.

We gained an LLC, registered our business name, put up a website, decided what amount of work we wanted to do, and what we were willing to pay someone else to do.

Created a business plan, a marketing plan and a Book marketing plan.

Set realistic goals – it usually takes any business at least 3 years to see true success and maintainability – and starting a small press is starting such a business.

Released 2 books the first year a middle grade and an upper ya book. Create media kit, marketing packet.

Started promoting books 6 to 8 months before release (that meant getting covers made prior to finalized editing).

OUR STAFF

We recruited college interns that wanted to learn the business. Built contracts with an events coordinator (and one day will get a publicist), two editors (one for full edits and another for proof-reading prior to sending to print), gained a printer, a distributor (to distributes to the big guys and requires very little work for us initially), artist and everything else we either do ourselves or contract as needed.

GARNER SUPPORT and KNOWLEDGE

We joined IBPA which was a wealth of information and Mid Atlantic Book Publishers Association. Also, we started to network with other small pubs who were extremely supportive and helpful.

OUR PRINTING, SALES, MARKETING Goals

We decided that for us, we wanted to do a little less of the initial leg work and did a digital print run of 2K books for ARCs and market test. The goal was to sell 1,500 and give away 500 before the book actually printed (realize that large publishers print 10K or more and giveaway a larger % of their books than a small pub can afford to). It was successful most of the time by setting up blog tours, soft ads on active blogs, and word of mouth. Also, ebook release a bit early helped to get buzz started for the print. Once the initial print run is sold out – we print with multiple print on demand providers (because we own our ISBNs) that offer returns for booksellers.

LESSONS LEARNED

When marketing your book make a budget, realize that you don’t have to do it all in one day – so pace yourself. It’s your product and you have a long time to sell it, but take the time to build the right marketing profile for the specific piece of work you are selling. Also, it’s more profitable and less stressful if you promote the same genre/age group for the first few years before branching out. Always be professional and seek ways to improve your business model. Give your business time to see its potential.

SOME THINGS THAT MATTER

Pricing – if you can’t be competitive in your pricing, don’t even bother. Cover – compare your cover with others and see if it meets the muster (they are your first marketing tool). Editing – don’t you dare skimp on this – not one bit, try to get at least one professional editor and one proofreader. Ebooks – a must do for small pubbers since it offers a way to get book out there with as little of cost as possible. Marketing – must be consistent and takes about 3-6 months to be realized. Timing – DON’T RUSH!!!! Take your time, build your buzz, make your product shine – remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Do Need To find your Spark for Your Life?

2011-06-15T19:30:00.000-07:00

Well this is how I found mine. Listen up to the interview where I speak about how I found my spark to write.
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
BLOG RADIO INTERVIEW - LM PRESTON, Finding Your Spark

Dust Off Your Pile of Unpub Works!

2011-06-13T04:03:00.000-07:00

Do you have stuff you’ve written that you haven’t done anything with yet? Do you write that first draft and put it aside to run off and work on a new project? Well here’s some tips on how to keep the work churning forward.

POEMS just SITTING AROUND?

If you write various works and you have some Poetry sitting around, don’t waste it. Clean that poetry up and you can do the following with it.

Dust it off and hit the road. Recite it at open mics.

Tweet it

Make a video of you reciting it and put it on your blog, fb, twitter or video road show

Incorporate it in one of your books or short stories

Make up home made greeting cards and use it for a giveaway

MANUSCRIPTS just PILING UP

I currently have 2 manuscripts collecting dust and one I’m working on. I recently dusted one off and started the editing process, but it’s going darn slow. Much slower than when I wasn’t also promoting a book. But I am glad that I have 2 backlogged.

So I try to get into a rhythm. I write on the new work in progress in the morning. I edit a finished draft at night. Most times this works out.

Here’s some things I do to keep my work churning.

Send first draft through critique group

Print out chapters and mark it up while I’m at my kids sports practices

Put it on my Nook and check for plot holes

Send out to beta readers

Edit it or use an free editing tool to scream out obvious errors

Tease some of it for absolutewrite Tuesday tease

Read outload to family during long trips

Submit to contest

COMIC Script or GRAPHIC Novel script hanging around?

Yeah, I even have one of these started. I wrote a 10 page comic strip for my Middle Grade series, Explorer X and haven’t had time to do a darn thing with it. But I’ve gathered some ideas from some author buds and I’ve got big plans, lol!

Here are some things you can do with these:

Tease a strip weekly (of course you have to find an artist willing to play)

Tweet a piece a week as your characters

Finish the darn thing and post a page a week

Put it in contest

SO WHAT IDEAS DO YOU HAVE FOR GETTING YOUR PILED UP WRITING GEMS OUT THERE?

Best Selling Author, LA Banks is Gravely ill, Please keep her in your prayers

2011-06-10T17:05:00.001-07:00

It is with profound sadness that we have to inform you that our beloved sister and friend, Leslie Esdaile, (“L.A. Banks”) is most gravely ill. She is facing an uphill battle in her struggle with serious illness. Please know that as Leslie needs all of her energy in this fight, she is absolutely not able to receive visitors, answer emails, texts or phone calls, or receive flowers. What she is able to receive is your continued prayers. Also, Leslie’s medical expenses are mounting at an astronomical rate. If you wish to assist Leslie, a fund has been established to help with these ever increasing expenses. If you wish to send donations (please note that donations are not tax-deductible) to help Leslie, please see the information listed below: Leslie Esdaile Fund Account #81538801 Police and Fire Federal Credit Union Operations Center 901 Arch Street Philadelphia, PA 19107-2404 215-931-0300 If you live in Philadelphia, PA, you may take donations directly to any Police and Fire Federal Credit Union branch. Please be sure to note the account number. You may also send them to the P.O. Box listed below*. Police and Fire Federal Credit Union Branch Locations: Main Branch: 901 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107 Additional Branches: Leo Mall, 11705 Bustleton Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116-2515 Davisville Shopping Center, Street Road, Philadelphia, PA Andorra Shopping Center, Ridge and Henry Avenues, Philadelphia, PA City Avenue Shopping Center, 7604 City Avenue, Philadelphia, PA, 19151-2007 Mayfair Branch on Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia, PA Northeast Branch, 7500 Castor Avenue, Philadelphia, PA Grant and Academy Shopping Center Branch, Philadelphia, PA You may send good wishes and cards to*: Leslie Esdaile c/o Tina Ryan Wise P.O. Box 37189 Philadelphia, PA 19148-9998 On behalf of Leslie, her daughter Helena, her sister Liza and all of her family and friends, we sincerely thank you for all of your continued prayers and support. Tina Ryan Wise Tinarwise@gmail.com
By: Tina Wise

Steel by Carrie Vaughn - Book Review

2011-06-09T14:21:00.000-07:00

Amazon Book Blurb:
Sixteen-year-old Jill has fought in dozens of fencing tournaments, but she has never held a sharpened blade. When she finds a corroded sword piece on a Caribbean beach, she is instantly intrigued and pockets it as her own personal treasure.

The broken tip holds secrets, though, and it transports Jill through time to the deck of a pirate ship. Stranded in the past and surrounded by strangers, she is forced to sign on as crew. But a pirate's life is bloody and brief, and as Jill learns about the dark magic that brought her there, she forms a desperate scheme to get home—one that risks everything in a duel to the death with a villainous pirate captain.

NYIA Teen Book Reviewer:

I just have to say it. I loved this book. Adventure and the pirate test. It used authentic fencing language. The main character, Jill, was honest and acted like a normal teen. Her crush was likeable and wasn't disgusting like the other pirates. The setting wasn't complicated and was easy to visualize. She had to find her way home and she had to go through the pirates, figure out who to trust, get a rapier back in order to make it home safe. Only sad part was...her crush couldn't go with her. I give this four star out of 5. The authentic language slowed the pace and I would have to go in the back of the book to understand what they meant. Oh, and some problems seemed unrealistic - but I really enjoyed this book in spite of those small little things.

XMEN First Class - Movie Review

2011-06-07T04:33:00.001-07:00

Blurb from IMDb: In 1962, Charles Xavier starts up a school and later a team, for humans with superhuman abilities. Among them is Erik Lensherr, his best friend... and future archenemy.

Before their changes:

After they became Baddass:

MY REVIEW:

Oh, yeah, this one really surprised me. I’m a comic buff. Hey, I can’t help it. My dear hubby has been brainwashing me on comics for years. Not to mention – I got a thing for super heroes. Anyway, this one has some great character building. People with serious attitudes are out to get the US and they are trying to start a world war. This one was probably the best mainly because it stuck real close to the original comic story. The characters in this were vivid and there was plenty of action and the movie was just plain super fun. I give it a 4 out of 5 Magnets. This is a great summer movie if you like super heroes, comics or the X-men. My only issue was that they only teased me with Wolverine…that guy has my heart.

More Great Books from my BEA Treasures

2011-06-05T12:34:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah, I'm about to dig into some summer reading and just wanted to share more of the titles of books I was able to get my greedy little hands on at the BEA conference.

Original Sin (A Personal Demons Novel) by Lisa Desrochers

Trial By Fire, Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Nice Shot, Cupid! By Kate McMullan

Whateverland Learning to live here by Alexis Stewart and Jennifer Koppelman Hutt

Forbidden, Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee

Vampire Slayer (Nancy Drew Graphic Novel Series) by Petrucka, Kenney & Murase

Dry Ice by Bill Evens and Marianna Jameson

Wire to Wire by Scott Sparling

Glide by Bill Gourgey

The Scorpions Sting by JD Masterson

Stanley by Kareena Maxwell

Saint’s Gate by Carla Neggers

The Christmas Wedding by James Patterson

It’s the First Day of School Forever, RL Stine

EDITING IS NO FUN

2011-06-03T11:32:00.000-07:00

When I first started writing I didn’t know what the heck I was doing when it came to editing. Over the years I figured out what my bad habits are and the ways to trick myself into picking away the junk out of my work and making it shine enough to pass on to an editor that can further shape it up.

But here’s what I’ve learned about it overall.

IF YOU ARE GOING TO BE A WRITER – YOU NEED TO LEARN TO EDIT

I had to take a refresher course on editing. Sure, many writers think they don’t have to learn to edit. That they don’t need to spend extra time figuring out how to clean up their work – THAT’s WRONG. If you take writing seriously – EDITING is a big part of it.

There are books you can read, but taking a class always helps. Also, editing other people’s work is a sure fire way to learn. Lastly, make a list of your personal writing bad habits while you are studying your books on editing and keep that list as you review your own work.

Like with any career, you have to train yourself to be successful and most well written authors are pretty darn good at editing. I should know, because many of them have ripped my early drafts apart, lol!

WHY SHOULD A WRITER LEARN TO EDIT – DOESN’T THE PUBLISHER RE-EDIT WORK ANYWAY?

Whoa! I can’t tell you how many newbie writers have said that to me in the last few years. With the publishing industry being so competitive your stuff needs to be near publish ready before you start submitting it to agents or publishers directly. Yes, once you get an agent/publisher they will edit it further, but it’s much better for them to start with something that’s already in good shape.

SOME WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR EDITING

Read books on self-editing

Beta read and edit other author’s work

Let your stuff sit for a spell before you jump in with edits

Create an editing checklist for yourself of your bad habits that you need to look for in your document

Use a few editing help tools like autocrit.com which is free

Take a class

ALWAYS REALIZE THAT EDITING IS SUBJECTIVE, skill is different with each person and even the best editors still make mistakes. So try your best to get it as perfect as you can get your work on your own.

RULES FOR THE 3rd WHEEL DATING FRIEND

2011-05-31T09:17:00.000-07:00

You’ve all been there. As a teenager and an adult. The 3rd Wheel. The friend that accompanies another friend on a date as a chaperone, companion, bail excuse, lookout, body guard and whatever. I played my fair share of 3rd wheel and had friends do the same for me. This came up this weekend with my teens who are dating. One is going on her first 3rd wheel mission so I gave her the tips below :-D

Here’s some rules and tips.

BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR THESE SIGNALS

- Your friend hinting that you should go get popcorn or go to the bathroom or jerking her head to the side means, “I like him – get lost”
- Your friend’s boyfriend winking at you over her shoulder means, “I’m a scumbag who’s trying to have my cake and eat it too.”
- Your friend tugs on your shirt and tell you it’s time for a lady’s room break means, “I have to come up with a plan to ditch this bozo.”

DON’Ts FOR THE 3rd Wheel

- Don’t ever fall for your friend’s boyfriend
- Don’t be clingy – be seen and not heard, remember it’s not your date it’s her’s
- Don’t ever stay alone with the said date/boyfriend – this could backfire and friend may become jealous and think you have eyes for her guy.
- Don’t gobble up your friend’s time/conversation – you could be drowning out her date and tick him off and make her lose a good opportunity to meet someone nice
- Don’t make googoo eyes at your friend’s guy no matter how hot he is.

DOs FOR THE 3rd Wheel

- Do talk to your friend before the date to ask her what the signals are (signals to ‘let’s ditch dude’, ‘I’m having a great time – get lost 3rd wheel’, ‘He’s okay, but I’m not going to do another date with him’, ‘He’s a scum who wants us both, lets ditch him instead’)
- Do let her know that you won’t try to impose on her date by talking girl stuff the entire time, so she doesn’t have to feel like she has to entertain both the 3rd wheel and her guy
- Do let her know that you are there for her and all she has to do is let you know what she needs.

SHOULD YOU BE A 3rd Wheel

Well my kid asked me if she should even do this. I told her yes – sometimes, but don’t make it a habit. It’s nice to be able to see what goes on a date without being a participant. And besides, you may need that same friend to 3rd wheel for you.

HAVE YOU BEEN A 3rd Wheel? IF so do you have tips?

Launch Party Favors! Winners of the Goodreads Bandits Giveaway!

2011-05-28T16:31:00.000-07:00

The Bandits Launch Party has kicked off with a bang! Online Giveaway's in which over 200 readers downloaded their free copy of Bandits on Smashwords! 100 books signed and given away at BEA! And for the Launch Day Final Prize giveaway - Goodreads Winner's take the pirate's booty of 10 books.

Here's the winners for the Goodreads Give Away!

Vicki Krivak
Mary Campbell
Janice Crespo
Shawna Guilford
Ruth Thompson
Becca Kher
Keisha Lyons
Jennifer Burger
Mardi Studer
Sharon Hoskison

Still 2 days to download your complimentary Launch Party copy of Bandits, re-release–FREE EBOOK coupon code:LV67U http://dld.bz/YzJw

Why BEA is the bomb for Pubs, Authors & Readers!

2011-05-27T04:09:00.000-07:00

This was my first year attending the BEA Conference, and can I tell you – it was awesome! I’m going to be tweeting about the great books I got while at BEA and listing my favs so stay tuned.

MY SIGNING AT BEA

This was the greatest moment of my career as an author and gave me such joy to have signed and given away 100 books at the event this week. The support I got was overwhelming. Especially since I’ve always been concerned that ‘writing in Boy’ wasn’t the most popular thing to do. But because there were very little books featuring male pov’s I was pleasantly surprised to meet people interested in my series. Not to mention, I loved visiting with people who were excited to meet my characters.

WHY ALL AUTHORS should Attend

Whether you are traditionally published, self-published, or trying to get published this is a great networking event. Not only that, but it is an inspiring event as you meet other authors getting their book hustle on, publishers even lit agents hang out at these events. Also, it’s a great way to learn the opportunities within the business. As a self-published author (entrepreneurs) it’s a way to showcase your book to booksellers, lit agents, librarians, bloggers as well as meet organizations that support publishers and such.

WHY ALL PUBLISHERS (Tiny to Big) should Attend

This is also a great place for publishers (small, new, large) to network with publishers interested in purchase of international rights for books. So if you are a small press (like we are) you can pitch to other publishers to sell your International Rights to your books. Also, you can find out all the new things happening in publishing. Definitely attend the IBPA publishing university which is a great learning tool for small press and self-pubbers.

WHY READERS should Attend

FREE books, celebrity authors, tons of parties, meet new and exciting authors, more free books, Blog World – learn how to turn your reading into a business adventure. Networking – yep, readers can network here too and talk one on one to authors, industry heads and have a blast. Meet celebrities – yep, I got to meet James Patterson, Little Wayne, Tony Hawk and so many more celebrity peeps.

SO, Why would you tell an Author, Small Press, Large Pub, Reader, Blogger to attend?

My BEA Booty! Yep, my book treasures

2011-05-24T16:40:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the great books I got at BEA (only a few of them in one of my bags, I haven't even opened the other three.)

I have a signing at BEA on Wed at 2pm and I hope you can make it. If not don't forget to pick up your free copy of Bandits in ebook.

YAY! Here's a sample of the books and links I got signed today.

I love you more, by Kim Thompson and Bailey Thompson
http://www.twinsisters.com/onlinecatalog/boardbooksmusiccds/3043.htm

Sophie, by Katherine Gibson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpADU6FOHNY

The Megasaurus Peter Weck (Author), Len DiSalvo (Illustrator)
http://www.amazon.com/Megasaurus-Lima-Bear-Stories/dp/1933872128

Black out, by John Rocco
http://www.amazon.com/Blackout-John-Rocco/dp/1423121902

Sara Emma Edmonds Was a Great Pretender, by Carrie Jones
http://www.carriejonesbooks.com/my-books/sarah-emma-edmonds/

The Lords by Little Ones, Allia Zobel Nolen
http://www.christianbook.com/the-lords-prayer-for-little-ones/allia-nolan/9780736926621/pd/926621

Dude, Fun with Dude and Ben by Lisa Pliscou
http://www.amazon.com/Dude-Fun-Betty-Lisa-Pliscou/dp/0061756903

Tugg and Teeny by Patrick Lewis
http://www.amazon.com/Tugg-Teeny-Book-One-Reader/dp/1585366854/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1306279383&sr=1-1

Zapato Power by Jacqueline Jules
http://www.amazon.com/Zapato-Power-Freddie-Ramos-Takes/dp/0807594792/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1306279451&sr=1-1

Wire To Wire by Scott Sparling
http://www.amazon.com/Wire-Tin-House-New-Voice/dp/1935639056/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1306279504&sr=1-1

Original Sin by Lisa Desrochers
http://www.amazon.com/Original-Sin-Personal-Demons-Novel/dp/0765328097/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306279558&sr=1-1-fkmr0

The Eleventh plague by Jeff Hirsh
http://www.amazon.com/Eleventh-Plague-Jeff-Hirsch/dp/0545290147/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306279719&sr=1-1-spell

The Faerie Ring, by Kiki Hamilton
http://kikihamilton.blogspot.com/p/faerie-ring_25.html

The Scorpion’s Sting by J.D. Masterson
http://www.jdmasterson.com/

Dry Ice by Bill Evans and Marianna Jameson
http://www.amazon.com/Dry-Ice-ebook/dp/B004VMV3Y0

Trial by Fire by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
http://www.amazon.com/Trial-Fire-Raised-Wolves-Novel/dp/1606841688/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1306280256&sr=1-1

The Sword of Darrow by Alex and Hall Machow
http://www.amazon.com/Sword-Darrow-Hal-Malchow/dp/1935618466/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306280350&sr=1-1-fkmr0

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Movie Review

2011-05-23T05:07:00.000-07:00

FANDANGO BLURB:

Johnny Depp returns to his iconic role of Captain Jack Sparrow in an action-packed adventure. Crossing paths with the enigmatic Angelica (Penélope Cruz), he’s not sure if it’s love—or if she’s a ruthless con artist who’s using him to find the fabled Fountain of Youth. When she forces him aboard the “Queen Anne’s Revenge,” the ship of the legendary pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane), Jack finds himself on an unexpected adventure in which he doesn’t know whom to fear more: Blackbeard or Angelica, with whom he shares a mysterious past. The international cast includes franchise vets Geoffrey Rush as the vengeful Captain Hector Barbossa and Kevin R. McNally as Captain Jack’s longtime comrade Joshamee Gibbs, plus Sam Claflin as a stalwart missionary and Astrid Bergès-Frisbey as a mysterious mermaid.

MY REVIEW:
I love the Pirate’s of the Caribbean movies. This time I had another great ride. But something big was missing – and I wanted it. The chemistry between Johnny Depp, Captain Barbossa, Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann. Because they weren’t in this movie – I felt a little cheated. Now the new adventure was a fun one – to find the Fountain of Youth. A long lost love for Captain Jack and his awkward and endearing way of getting out of the worst messes with just a bit of offhanded arrogance was wonderful. The exchange with Penelope Cruz was light, and I wanted more of a heated seduction to go on –but hey I’m greedy. I give it a 3.5 black pearls since the missing characters I’ve wanted to re-acquaint with were no where to be found.

PRIEST Movie Review

2011-05-20T04:31:00.000-07:00

FANDANGO:

A warrior priest (Paul Bettany) disobeys Church law by teaming with a young sheriff (Cam Gigandet) and a beautiful priestess (Maggie Q). The three band together to track down a band of renegade vampires who have kidnapped the priest's niece before they turn her into one of them.

MY REVIEW:

I will forewarn you, I love Vamps, any kind of Vamp, but especially the guelly kind that are ugly, animalistic and .... hungry. Priest delivered a scifi, twisted, off ball tale of a future where Vamps tried to eat the world. The war's in the past, the Priest have retired, but then there's a twist. A former Priest was turned and the Vamps are back. He leads the animalistic Vamp, kidnaps a former Priest's daughter and Paul - the warrior Priest goes against the 'church (a twisted view of the catholic church) to save her. Overall this was an okay film, it had much more potential but it was entertaining and suspenseful. It kept me watching. I give it 3 out of 5 fangs.

FREE! Ebook BANDITS in Honor of BEA Give Away!

2011-05-18T17:35:00.000-07:00

FREE! Ebook BANDITS in Honor of BEA Give Away! http://bit.ly/iNSY8V coupon:LV67U good til May 31st!

Pre-release Promo for BANDITS (Teen Pirates-Treasure-Love-Death) FREE ebook BANDITS http://bit.ly/iNSY8V coupon:LV67U good til May 31st! Check out the great reviews on my website www.lmpreston.com BANDITS has been getting 4 and 5 stars! Please enjoy and post a review on AMAZON

Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen

2011-05-17T03:59:00.000-07:00

NYIA teen book reviewer is in the house!!!! Give her a warm welcome!

Book Blurb Booklist:

Ruby hasn’t had much success with family. Her father left; her protective older sister, Cora, left; and her boozing mother finally leaves, too. Ruby is alone until Cora learns of her situation and swoops in. Suddenly, Ruby finds herself living with Cora and her wealthy brother-in-law, attending private school, and wondering just where she fits in. As in previous books, Dessen takes on a central theme—here the meaning of family—and spins many plots and subplots around it. Most prominent yet least successful is the thread about Cora’s relationship with boy-next-door Nate, who rescues her when she needs it, but has difficulty accepting Ruby’s help, tentative at first, when she discovers he’s being physically abused. Nate seems too good to be true (as does Cora’s husband), while his father is a caricature. And one of the most important elements, the issue of the girls’ mother lying to them, gets lost. Despite the uneven narrative, Dessen’s writing can be beautiful, and her story is involving.

NYIA's REVIEW:

I give this book a 4 out of 5 hearts, mostly because the story was very interesting and had major drama, but it had too much back story so I snatched away a heart. The main character,Ruby, was very likable and grew throughout the story. The side love story was so touching and showed true dedication. I liked that the love story grew throughout the book and was well developed. Like I said before, the back-stories were overkill at times. They answered a lot of questions formed in the book, but there was so much back-story that I wished she made the beginning of the book sooner. The book overall was a great read and the ending was sweet and sad at the same time. I can honestly say that I had no unanswered questions at the end of this book, except the usual one left with the whole love interest thing.

Yippee! I got the Stylish Blogger Award!

2011-05-15T16:30:00.000-07:00

I'm uber excited today. I just found out via twitter :-D that I am nominated for the Awesome Stylish Blogger Award!

Thanks soooo much, Yelena Casale! Here's a link to her blog: CLICK HERE

And now, THE RULES :-D

1. Thank and link to the person(s) who nominated you;
2. Share seven random facts about yourself;
3. Pass the award along to five blogging buddies;
4. Contact those buddies to congratulate them.

Here's my Seven Facts

I'm an Engineer and I design and build really cool systems!
I'm a mom of Four kids all of which have a part in my writing experience.
I'm a karate flick nut and go to the flea market to buy them all of the time.
I took karate when I was a kid, but only got to the blue belt when I discovered boys.
I used to do people's english papers in college, write their resumes, and tutor in order to make extra cash.
I'm a product of teen parents and I survived :-D
I met my husband on a blind date when I was 15yrs old and married him after dating just a few months when in my 20's.

Here's the lucky Bloggers who have stylish blogs.

Bookalicious: http://bookalicio.us

Dawn Brazil's http://dawnbrazil.blogspot.com/

Once Upon A Legacy said: www.onceuponatimelegacydevine.com

Writer's Musings: http://tabwriter.blogspot.com/

Write Game: http://writegame.blogspot.com/

Romance in YA

2011-05-11T05:46:00.000-07:00

Yeah, love is in the air. I’ve always loved romantic stories. I think it all started with those darn Disney Princess stories but it grew. As a teen I always loved to read about love – even when I read other books.

YA and ROMANCE

To be honest I believe a lot of YA books fall short on ‘romance’ but is heavy on heated love, sex scenes that are just blah or unnecessary and love triangles that are – lets face it, just plain unbelievable. I mean c’mon if there were two hot guys like Edward and Jacob at school – they would be chasing any girl that threw themselves at them and certainly wouldn’t be waiting around for a plain girl named Bella :-D

But we love those stories because – well, we wish that could happen.

I’d like to read a YA novel that actually had a scene filled with true romance (personally without the sex unless it is important to the character) and if they are going to put the sex scene in there, I wish they would be tasteful. But hey, that’s just me. I did however ask my daughter and she mentioned she thought they were just plain sleazy and didn’t add anything to the story for her so she would skip those parts.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT SEX SCENES in YA ROMANCE?

I asked my daughter to take a poll of her friends (14-15yr old girls) and her response was that 8 of the 10 girls said they thought they were icky, and spoiled some scenes for them. The other 2 girls said they liked reading them. All girls agreed that it made sex less curious for them and didn’t paint the picture that it was something fun to do. Hmmmmm.

TONIGHT on YAlitchat (check it out on twitter at 9pm on Wed) we’ll be chatting about Romance, so drop in.