Author Archives: Kate Policani

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About Kate Policani

Hello, my name is Kate and I am a compulsive fiction writer. I have a passion for story. Real or fiction, across genres, I write, read, watch, and listen to stories. Every story holds deeper meaning and lessons to learn. I write to expand ideas and connect readers to my stories and their deeper messages. Through my stories I explore the common themes of life and push the boundaries of my own perceptions. I would love to take my readers on a journey to explore life’s questions and find still more questions to ask. A Seattle mom of three and therefore a coffee addict, I write my books over a hot mocha in the rainy season (Fall-Winter-Spring) and an iced mocha during the six weeks of summer. Every journal I own begins with a few days of my life and then some hastily-scrawled record of whatever story takes over. I think about my stories in bed as I drift off to sleep. I often wake in the middle of the night with a writing idea. I have scrawled story notes on the backs of my grocery lists wadded up in my purse. My writing ideas even have their own email address. Story grows everywhere from the music we hear to the people we encounter. Will you take a journey into story with me?

Awesome Indies

I want to give a shout-out and a big thanks to Tahlia Newland, a fellow crusader for independent books. She has honored my work by adding me to her new page, Awesome Indies!

Awesome Indies is a brand new list of books that she and other authors and editors can unreservedly recommend. The idea is to honour the Indie authors who produce a high quality product and to direct readers towards the Indie Gold that lies hidden amongst the avalanche of available books.

Click on her link to see the Awesome Indies, read their great books, and maybe suggest a few yourself!

Categories: My Books | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Goodreads Author Emergency!

If you are an author with books listed on Goodreads, quick, go peek at them to make sure they aren’t “Lost”!

Barnes & Noble is in a snit with Amazon and Goodreads has taken sides. Now we, the authors, are caught in the middle! All Amazon credentials are now VOID on Goodreads.

You have to manually “recover” your books to see them. You need to be able to supply ISBNs or ASNs for each book manually. Ebook versions are separate from print versions, so you have to “recover” both. You can’t use the information on Amazon, either. CreateSpace does work, but you can’t post the link to Amazon to reactivate your book. Even then, I couldn’t figure out how to get my cover images back. Anybody have any suggestions?

Thanks a heap, Goodreads! Way to act mature!

Categories: Dookie | Tags: , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Writing Fiction Helps Others Succeed!

Saw this article today and thought of all of you WordPress author friends!

http://oomscholasticblog.com/2012/01/read-fiction-to-succeed.html

Categories: Writing | Tags: , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Happy February!

This is a big month for me!

Today The Lustre begins the editing phase! I am using a different editor this time mainly because she was my original choice for editor but was moving to California at the time and so passed me on to Kathryn who edited The Disenchanted Pet.

In addition to my exciting book news, I will be turning 29 (again) this month. For my birthday present to myself I will be combing through my followers list again to buy some more of your books! (I also might buy a new purse, but I’m not sure.) I will buy books from my blog followers I haven’t bought from before with the intention of reviewing them on Compulsively Writing Reviews. I will have a budget. If your book is more expensive, I have to bump it to the bottom of my list because I want to be able to buy more than 2 ebooks. If your book is on the expensive side and you miss out, I will still trade you a copy of The Disenchanted Pet or The Lustre for review!

I’ll also join a new blog tour group, Tribute Books, with my review of The Priest and the Peaches on February 10th!

Now I have to decide when to release The Lustre…. I think you’ll be seeing some posts soon on how to release a book the right way! Anybody have any suggestions for articles online? Post your links in the comments!

Categories: My Books | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Never Do This

I keep a running list of things that I keep to remind myself never to do them in a book. Here is the list.

Never:

Write a Fiction novel about myself disguised thinly. Middle-aged housewives do not have romantic adventures.

Write novel about novelists, publishers, or anyone in the writing business. It’s pandering or bragging.

Begin with how drab people’s lives are

Begin in an awful situation that isn’t exciting and doesn’t move the story along.

Spend too much time with discussion and explanation at the beginning. Give them SOME action or even a little plot!

Write a plot line where the heroine saves the hero from himself. It’s overdone, oversmug and under-realistic.

Write people who behave outside their age. A 30-something with a 20-something lifestyle and 20 something mindset isn’t dashing. It makes them look developmentally delayed.

Start the book with a long boring history of people who arent real and the reader hasn’t had time to care about yet

Make too many plot twists. It should be exciting, not dizzying.

 

Phrases to avoid:

Twin, dark pools

Eyes like the ocean before a storm (overused)

being “undone” unless writing about Regency England or Hairstylists

All eloquent description of kissing, lovemaking, or intimacy. It always sounds corny and embarrassing.

  • Examples: “Taking his tongue and giving him hers in return”, “Tender sweep of his tongue”

Absolutely anything about claiming unless it has to do with coats or dry-cleaning

 

This list is by no means complete. If you have any wonderful “bad writing avoidance” suggestions, I’d love to hear them!

Categories: Writing | Tags: , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Quotes From Books

While reading, sometimes I just have to write down something so I can see it often.

Here are some I’ve saved:

“I tucked his words away like a piece of candy into my pocket, to take out later and savor.”

~Hourglass by Myra McEntire

 

“They held hands, soaking wet, wearing inflated innertubes around their waists like misplaced halos, leaving water droplets in their wake.”

~Skinny by Diana Spelcher

 

‘”Of course you may say a few words. My colleagues would be honored. I am naturally too important to feel honored, but I would be mildly amused.”‘

~And Another Thing... by Eoin Colfer

 

“I am in my own world of misreading people, reaching out to them in an awkward, overplanned way that blows up big-time, then retreating back into my just-me existence, while they go around telling anyone who will listen what a tard I am.”

~The Boy Who Couldn’t Sleep and Never Had To by D.C. Pierson

 

“You know that expression, “It hit me like a ton of bricks”? It’s true. Guys don’t talk about stuff like that. We just lie under the pile of bricks.”

~Looking For Alaska by John Green

 

“Horror Movies never tell you that–about how most of the time when you’re faced with the unspeakable, the biggest thing you take away from the experience is the need to find some indoor plumbing.”

~Betrayals byLili St. Crow

 

I think those were in kind of a reverse order of when I read them. Do you have any fun book quotes you had to keep?

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A New Review of The Disenchanted Pet

My dear friend, Nadia Riell, has reviewed my book! You can find her review here: http://nadiariell.com/2012/01/18/a-book-review-for-the-disenchanted-pet-by-kate-policani/

Thank you, Nadia! Your feedback, dialogue, and encouragement were an enormous help in writing The Disenchanted Pet, and also in writing The Lustre, coming at the end of February!

Categories: My Books, Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

New Review: One Insular Tahiti by Thea Atkinson

One Insular Tahiti

by Thea Atkinson

Genre: Psychological Drama

See my review of One Insular Tahiti at: http://katepolicanisreviews.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/one-insular-tahiti-by-thea-atkinson/

Or you can just buy it now!

Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Insular-Tahiti-reincarnation-redemption-ebook/dp/B0042RUKSE/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Insular-Tahiti-reincarnation-redemption-ebook/dp/B0042RUKSE/

http://www.amazon.fr/Insular-Tahiti-reincarnation-redemption-ebook/dp/B0042RUKSE/

http://www.amazon.de/Insular-Tahiti-reincarnation-redemption-ebook/dp/B0042RUKSE/

http://www.amazon.esInsular-Tahiti-reincarnation-redemption-ebook/dp/B0042RUKSE/

http://www.amazon.it/Insular-Tahiti-reincarnation-redemption-ebook/dp/B0042RUKSE/

Kobo

http://kobobooks.com/ebook/One-Insular-Tahiti/book-Ogo9c1wR9EaRY1R9z8dDmg/page1.html

Smashwords

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/3391

Synopsis:

Luke MacIsaac is dead, and not restfully dead. His death has come the way he always feared it would: in the claustrophobic, underground heat of a Cape Breton coal mine. He had suspected it would end this way, had embraced it even, so while his body is buried, his soul settles into a watery existence of endless waiting.

But in short order the placid waters of his afterlife turn to rolling seas of time and memory as his violent past plays out again for him. Images of war, childhood abuse, and the tortured life of a brother he loved and failed threaten to inundate him.

More than anything, he wants to escape.

In his confusion and pain, he senses a kindred spirit in Astrid, a newborn struggling to stay alive. Luke helps her in hopes she may one day be the one who brings him out of his purgatory and into a new incarnation.

He discovers too late that Astrid’s soul is linked to his hellish past life. Now he must experience all the anguish they went through together, and watch helplessly as Astrid goes through sorrows of her own, before the two of them can finally meet in this world and find peace together.

Thea Atkinson is a writer of character driven fiction; call it what you will: she prefers to describe her work as psychological thrillers with a distinct literary flavour. As in her bestselling novel, Anomaly, her characters often find themselves in the darker edges of their own spirits but manage to find the light they seek.

She has been an editor, a freelancer, and a teacher, but fiction is her passion. She now blogs and writes and twitters. Not necessarily in that order.

Please visit her blog for ramblings, guest posts, giveaways, and more http://theaatkinson.wordpress.com

or follow her on twitter http://twitter.com/#!/theaatkinson

or like her facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Theas-Writing-Page/122231651163413

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Evernote

If you have any kind of Android device, I recommend you try out the Evernote app. It is also an app available on Google Chrome, and what it does is connect your PC or Mac (I think) to your Android device using a notepad-type application. You can type on your computer and stick it into a note on Evernote and then pick it back up in your Android device. You can type something up on your Android and then get it onto your computer too.

I use Ever to take notes for my book reviews while I am using the Kindle app to read books. I can jot down thoughts while I read so I can refer to them later for the review. I can also use it to jot a quick note about any writing ideas I have so that I can leave the laptop closed.

The website, where you can access any of your notes on any browser is https://www.evernote.com/

 

Categories: Resources | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Wah Wah Wah :(

I won’t be submitting The Lustre or The Disenchanted Pet to the Amazon Breakthrough Award, because they only accept manuscripts of 50,000 words or more. Neither one has this many, so neither will qualify. Oh well! I guess this is why I self-published! Maybe next year I can finish How to Win Friends and Influence Magicians in time for the contest (and make it longer).

If you were thinking of submitting and your novel is more than 150,000 words, you’re out of luck too. What is this magical number and where did they get it? Why are books that aren’t in that window not even worth their notice? And where is the beef?

Something I am not going to cry about–the prize is a $15,000 advance and by submitting your entry you are agreeing to accept that as your payment. They will negotiate your other payments later and will not promise anything. I wasn’t too in love with that one, not because I hate the idea of $15,000 but that it seems limiting. Call it my indie ‘tude, but should we settle for that much for all the rights to our books? Because that is all they are promising, and if you submit–just submit–you aren’t allowed to benefit from your book in any way until they “release” you by disqualifying you for the next round.

I’m still bummed I can’t enter because I think it is a great opportunity, but on the bright side, I got some great ideas for “pitching” my book! They have a bunch of articles on writing your book pitch and I wrote one for TDP and The Lustre before I found the word count thing.

If any of my bloggers who ARE entering want input on their pitch, feel free to post it in comments or link to your post!

Categories: Writing | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Library Thing

Library Thing has been mentioned in my web readings here and there, but didn’t really take the time to look. Since an author of a book I reviewed requested I put my review up there, I signed up. Here is my page: http://www.librarything.com/author/policanikate

Library Thing is a lot like Goodreads, but slightly less flashy with more emphasis on  information. There is a lot more room for detailed information too. For example, if you write with multiple pen names, this would be a great place to clarify that. There is a forum and they have groups just like Goodreads, but no alerts or mail (that I could see).

It was pretty easy and quick to sign up as an author and it was automatically connected to all the information I input before the approval. There is no block, that I could see, from anybody out there inputting information about any author or book. This was interesting and a little scary. Aside from the author page, they have an Author Chat area and an Early Reviewer section to review books before they are available to the public.

I feel more and more like I am just repeating information on all these sites, but I figure that if I get another reader, it was worth it. Overall, I am focusing on the blogging and Goodreads because there is no great way to use them all to their fullest unless I man the sites full time and stop writing. Since I signed up because of the writing, that would be nuts. And since I don’t want my kids turning feral (and mine would), I won’t be doing anything else full time anytime soon.

Categories: Resources | Tags: , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Versatile Blogger Award

Versatile Blogger Award 2012

What a great way to start 2012!

This award is given to bloggers, by bloggers (another reason I love the blogging community).

Now for the details, here’s how it works:

  • If you are nominated, thank the award giver and link back to them in your blog post
  • Share seven things about yourself
  • Pass this award along to recently discovered blogs you enjoy reading (some say to 15 some say to less than that.. I did 15).
  • Contact your chosen bloggers to let them know about the award and post the award picture

I was awarded the Versatile Blogger Award by Kate (such a cool name!) at  http://believeanyway.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/post-about-handing-out-versatile-blogger-awards/

and earlier by J.M. McDowell during the Christmas rush http://jmmcdowell.wordpress.com/2011/12/15/thank-you-the-versatile-blogger-award/

Thank you to Kate and J. M. for the award! I really appreciate it!

Seven things about me:

1. This is my first official public blog! I never had anything else to blog about so I never bothered before. I posted one for my own amusement but never tagged anything or connected with anyone really. I was really missing out!

2. If you asked me before 2007 if I would become a writer I would have said “no.”

3. I enjoy using my writers’ vocabulary in everyday conversation and it sometimes gets me strange looks, but usually people just think I’m smart (or a smarty-pants).

4. I am aware that I use way too many exclamation marks!!!!! It is a secondary affliction to my addiction to writing fiction!!!

5. I’ve been married for almost 16 years and I got married when I was 20. Yet somehow, I’m still 29….

6. My name was supposed to be just “Katie” but Mom was under anesthetic and Dad wrote “Katherine.”

7. I have been to Hawaii and St. Barths, both for work, and I prefer Hawaii.

Here are the 15 bloggers who deserve this award–they are sort-of in order of discovery.  You should follow them all and read and/or comment on their most excellent posts!

1. http://christianfantasyforwomen.com/

2. http://newenglandmuse.wordpress.com/

3. http://womenthrillerwriters.com/ also blogging at http://pamelahegarty.com

4. http://jeanewatier.wordpress.com/

5. http://alannahmurphy.co.uk/

6. http://sarahwinters.wordpress.com/

7. http://themonstrumchronicles.wordpress.com/

8. http://www.jaclynsmusings.com/

9. http://rebeccaberto.wordpress.com/

10. http://maggiepublishing.wordpress.com/

11. http://rosysophia.wordpress.com/ also blogging at http://rosasophia.com/

12. http://pigletinapoke.com/

13. http://cameliamironskiba.wordpress.com/

14. http://jaydesummers.wordpress.com/

15. http://bindo.wordpress.com/

 

Categories: Awards | Tags: , , , , , , | 15 Comments

New Review: Regression by Kathy Bell

Regression

by Kathy Bell

 Fourteen-year-old Adya Jordan wakes after a terrible accident with memories of another life…and echoes of even more. Was the family and husband all a dream, or did she really die in 2011 and begin all over again in 1985?

As Adya searches for answers, she encounters the Three Eleven Corporation. The leaders of this powerful global entity share her recollections of past lives, but not her philosophy about the world they are trying desperately to save from a future disaster. The company is trying to remedy future mistakes with past actions, but might not be changing the right things to prevent the fall of humanity.

Stuck in a desolate future, scientist Nicholas Weaver is forced to watch Adya replay the past again and again as he labors alone to save the world from the disaster he has lived over and over. Is this the time they finally get it right and save the woman he loves? If not, does he have the will to try again?

You can read my review of Regression here: http://katepolicanisreviews.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/regression-by-kathy-bell/

For more about the author, visit http://kathybellauthor.wordpress.com/

Or you can just purchase it right now on Kindle!

Categories: Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Chosen by Jolea M. Harrison

Chosen

by Jolea M. Harrison

the first book of The Guardians of the Word

Sixteen-year-old Dynan Telaerin finds himself on a corpse-strewn hillside, uncertain if he’s dead or alive, charged with saving the soul of his ancestor, the most powerful telepath to ever exist. Dynan has telepathic powers of his own, only he doesn’t know how to use them. With monsters and minions trying to eat his soul, the demon’s lair isn’t the place to learn anything – except how to run and how to hide. Will courage alone be enough to face the greatest evil to exist? Will he lose his soul to save everyone else?

The running starts, and doesn’t stop to the end of this action packed adventure of a young man coming to terms with his life while he’s barely a spirit, through horrors he thought existed only in dreams.

Chosen is the first book of the series, The Guardians of the Word.

A review for Chosen can now be found on my Review site: http://katepolicanisreviews.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/chosen-by-jolea-m-harrison/

Or you can just go buy it right now!

Amazon.com: Chosen (The Guardians of the Word) eBook: Jolea M. Harrison: Kindle Store

For more info about the author please visit: http://jm-harrison.com/

 

Categories: Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Now… Which Book?

Categories: My Books | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

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