You Might Be A Writer If….

Is it possible for you to be an author?

That is a question most people think they know. I know I did for fifteen years, and my answer was “no”. But I was WRONG! I had been an author all along but had dismissed that idea because I couldn’t see it. It would have been helpful for someone to ask me a few questions. One of my policies is, if I see a need for it but don’t see it online, I make it. So here you go!

  1. Do you write? This also seems like a dumb question. Of course you write. You write grocery lists, notes, emails, maybe even blog posts. But do you write for your own entertainment? When an idea hits you, are you compelled to write it down? Do you like to research things that won’t increase your paycheck? Then you just might be an author! Continue reading
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Motivated Beginnings

What makes a good beginning for a book? This is undeniably the crucial part of the book where the author’s talent needs to shine and he or she needs to draw you in so that you’ll bother reading the rest of the book. I usually know whether or not I want to read the rest of the book by the end of the first chapter. So what makes a good beginning?

Here’s what I like:

  • A problem – You’d think I have enough of those in my life, but for me to become interested in a book, I have to discover why the author wrote it and darn quick. If the first five chapters of a book give no hint as to why the characters do what they do, I lose interest. It can even be a hint of a problem and it will draw me in. Continue reading
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Author Blog-in Coming Soon:Sign up now!

 

Don’t forget to sign up!

The author blog-in is coming up. To get your choice of days, please sign up now. Feel free to share the page with your author friends too. Spread the word and widen our audience about our wonderful books!

All the information is here: https://katepolicani.com/author-blog-in/

 

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New Review: Island of Illusions by Jennifer L. Jennings

Island of Illusions

by Jennifer L. Johnson

Genre: Mystery

Read my review here: http://katepolicanisreviews.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/island-of-illusions-by-jennifer-l-jennings/

This third and final installment of the Sarah Woods Mystery Series finds our sleuth immersed in the tropical splendor of Oahu. However, what begins as an island getaway for Sarah quickly morphs into a desperate search for the missing infant of a wealthy Boston family. Just when the detectives believe they’ve made a breakthrough in the case, a shocking death shakes their investigation to the core. Much to Sarah’s surprise, surveillance expert Max Stevens also joins the frantic search. Will the detectives locate the missing child? Will Sarah finally share her true feelings with Max?

Pick up this novel and lose yourself in the mystery, or start with Book One, “An Appointment with Murder.” Either choice will keep you guessing ’til the very end.

Buy on Amazon

About the Author

Jennifer L. Jennings was born in Chicago, Illinois but has spent most of her life living in Maine. She was a massage therapist for fifteen years, and worked as a glass artisan for many years as well. She enjoys spending time with family and friends, traveling the world, playing guitar with her son Blake, reading, writing and doing all things creative.

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Analysis: Get more out of your reading!

Why would I want to analyze a book while I read it? Iread for fun!

My answer: analyzing your reading gives you more fun with the next book. What is it about your book that you like? What don’t you like and why? These are important questions to answer if you want to get more books you will love reading. You want that, right?

If you like to talk with others about books, this is a great way to pull out the intelligent answers to the question, “What did you like about this book?”

Here are some easy habits to get into while reading that will help you analyze books:

  1. Pay attention to the commonly-used themes the author is using. (Example: a woman alone, man vs. the system) They are everywhere, in movies, books, even commercials. There are big themes and small themes, some encompassing the whole book and some for just one scene. They vary with culture differences around the world and even within a city. It’s surprising to see that books on entirely different subjects can have similar themes. Pulling this out and poking it with a stick can be a lot of fun. Continue reading
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The Churn – Emotional things that affect me physically.

Here and there in my reading I find emotional events or encounters that give me a physical feeling. I feel the zing of adrenaline from my neck to my fingertips at a really exciting or scary scene. I feel the clench of my abdomen with fear or surprise. I feel the hollowness in my chest from sorrow or loss. I only get these physical reactions when I’m really engaged by a good book. (I don’t include erotic scenes in this category. Eroticism is an intentional pitch at a physical reaction and can be accomplished without emotion.)

I look forward to finding the churn reaction with each book I read and often start from these feelings when I write. I hope to be able to write in a way that gives the same feeling to others that I began with.

There is a fine balance, though, between good emotions in a book and sappy writing. Authors have to maintain a balance so that you don’t bore your reader with too much sorrow, surprise or fury. You can wear out the emotions.

What emotions give you a physical feeling?

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New Review: Flower Bowl Spell by Olivia Boler

Flower Bowl Spell

by Olivia Boler

Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal

Read my review here: http://katepolicanisreviews.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/flower-bowl-spell-by-olivia-boler/

Journalist Memphis Zhang isn’t ashamed of her Wiccan upbringing—in fact, she’s proud to be one of a few Chinese American witches in San Francisco, and maybe the world. Unlike the well-meaning but basically powerless Wiccans in her disbanded coven, Memphis can see fairies, read auras, and cast spells that actually work—even though she concocts them with ingredients like Nutella and antiperspirant. Yet after a friend she tries to protect is brutally killed, Memphis, full of guilt, abandons magick to lead a “normal” life. The appearance, however, of her dead friend’s sexy rock star brother—as well as a fairy in a subway tunnel—suggest that magick is not done with her. Reluctantly, Memphis finds herself dragged back into the world of urban magick, trying to stop a power-hungry witch from using the dangerous Flower Bowl Spell and killing the people Memphis loves—and maybe even Memphis herself.

Buy on Amazon!

 

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Book Promotion Companies Review Update

Look! A pretty Table!

My list is getting longer now! Thanks to all of you for your great input and willingness to share!

**These ratings for book marketing companies are all based strictly on customer experience and opinion. This is a running list and I will be happy to add other customer opinions of book marketing companies to this list. To include your ratings, please comment on this post or email me at katepolicani@gmail (dot) com. Continue reading

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The Mystery Win

Starting August 1st, my downloads on Smashwords of my free ebook, The Silver Collar have shot up by over 1,000 downloads! This means that somewhere, my book was listed in a spot that people saw and clicked. But where?

I posted it on four different book-posting sites in July:

http://www.free-ebooks.net

http://www.getfreeebooks.com

http://www.feedbooks.com

http://ebookdirectory.com Continue reading

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New Review: Puzzlebook: 100 Matchstick Puzzles

Puzzlebook: 100 Matchstick Puzzles

By Grabarchuck Puzzles

Read my review here: http://katepolicanisreviews.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/puzzlebook-100-matchstick-puzzles-by-grabarchuk-puzzles/

Discover a new Puzzlebook series of hands-on puzzles. The first book embraces 100 matchstick puzzles which you can play anywhere using matchsticks, toothpicks, pencils, crayons, pretzel sticks….be creative!

About the Authors:

The Grabarchuck family has decades of experience working in the Puzzle World. They create, design and test all of their puzzles. Their puzzles are published in books, magazines, newspapers, and on the Web. Solving hundreds of puzzles a year, they research and study the historical backgrounds of their puzzles. The Grabarchucks participate in puzzle activities all over the World to inspire their interactive puzzle creations.

Buy on Amazon

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Author Blog-in: Changing Gear

Here is our next book!

sixtyonabike's avatarSixty on a bike

Changing Gear cover

Changing Gear

by Eileen Sutherland

Changing Gear is about love, loss and adventure.It’s available on Kindle here.

In the summer of 2006 Allan and Eileen cycled from Britain to Bulgaria. He was a fit 52 year old with a new Dawes Galaxy bike and she was an overweight 54 year old with a dodgy knee and an old Trek. They set off with only a hazy idea of the route and not much money.

Three years earlier, on the 8th August 2003, their son Matt had died unexpectedly while on holiday. Things were never the same after Matt’s death. Allan and Eileen had tried living normally and found they couldn’t do it. So they looked for alternative ways of being, one of which was to cycle from Britain to Bulgaria.

‘As we got on our bikes I experienced an intense sense of freedom. A fraying of the cord of…

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Author Blog-in: Switcheroo!

This is new to all of us, and we’re figuring out how it works! Please pardon the switcheroo. Today is now my day for the Author Blog-in so the others can have time to catch up.

I’ll take this opportunity to invite you all to join in! This Blog-in is kinda short this time, which I’ll chalk up to August activities and my own laid-back approach. September 14-25 will be the next Blog-in, and we already have a sign-up! Lets fill up all the slots and maximize our collaborative audience. If you were shy about joining until now, don’t be! Shoot me an email and lets get groovy!

If you have blogged-in before, don’t worry! You’re still welcome to join in with a different book. Short stories and freebies are also welcome.

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Author Blog-in: The End of the World Sucks

The End of the World Sucks by Sharon Trembley

This is a genre blender book that might be compared to Lord of the Flies meets Let the Right One In in a post-zombie apocalyptic world. Don’t worry though, it’s about the people even though there are elements of horror.

This novel will be offered for free in Kindle format on Amazon on Saturday, August 11th for the Author Blog-In.

Zombies, a Vampire, or her fellow Man – Which is most likely to kill Vanna Ames? Who can she trust?

After surviving a whole month past the End of the World by hiding and staying quiet, recent college graduate and fashion retail employee, Vanna, luckily finds others who have gathered together as a community for their mutual survival on a college campus.

Although claiming to be a democratic society, tempers become frayed, decisions defy logic, and rules are broken. Further emboldened by the lack of society and law, some even gain a sense of entitlement because they are self-labeled heroes.

Now that all the rules have changed, a vampire arrives with a deal – his help for blood. An equally beneficial offer or a Faustian bargain?

As the community’s flaws grow, Vanna must decide whether to stick with her own kind in relative safety, or reject their community service nightmare, risk her life, and appeal to a vampire who claims his only interest is human blood.

And for the Author Blog In, here’s an excerpt to give a better idea of Vanna’s character because she is a character.  This occurs after Vanna hears gun shots early in the book and goes for a walk to find out what happened –

When she reached a point where two rolls of chain-link were joined together with some twisted wire, Vanna saw her. If she had seen that dress before, she would have remembered.
Muumuus were made for a woman of this size. Displaying a cheery, floral print provided no slimming effects, but proudly declared big and beautiful. Along with the turquoise, orange, and pink poly-blend tent, she also wore a pair of nude knee highs, and filthy, pink terry scuff slippers, and large, turquoise-colored plastic earrings with a matching chunky bracelet.
The woman had fallen on her side facing the fence, and like most of the corpses, her eyes remained forever open. Vanna thought the zombies didn’t blink, so that might be why their eyes turned that spotty white color.
Even with a visible gunshot wound to her face, Vanna could see the trivial details that further defined who this used to be. The woman’s short, not-so-natural blond hair was arranged into a crown of curlsframing her face. She also had heavy blue eye shadow still caked all the way up to her plucked, then redrawn with brown pencil, eyebrows.
Her lower face was grimy, Vanna couldn’t confirm her expectation of coordinating lipstick to match her screaming pink nail polish, brightly visible on the tips of her dirt-caked fingers from a distance. Vanna’sconstant fearful imagination made the gunk smeared on the zombie’s lips still appear fresh, wet and red, when she knew it had been there for weeks.

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Author Blog-in: The Silver Collar by Kate Policani

 

The Silver Collar

By Kate Policani

The Silver Collar is always free on Smashwords!

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/153927

Bought as a child to slave at an inn, Lyneth suffers under a terrible curse. Her frightening transformations can only be stopped when a priest puts a silver collar around her neck. The collar stops the change, but makes her ill. Her dangers increase as she matures into a beautiful and desirable woman. When a mysetrious nobleman visits the inn,her life changes forever.

The Silver Collar is a short story highlighting the fine line between gift and curse, belonging and alienation.

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