Please join me in one week for the next Discovery! Jun 14-25, Discover Authors will share great books. Readers, come learn about books straight from the author. Authors, come share your books and your audience for our free author-driven blog tour.
http://discoverauthors.wordpress.com
For more information on how it works: http://discoverauthors.wordpress.com/about/how-it-works/
Thank you to everyone who participated in the Author Blog-in! I would like to invite you all to participate in its new form, Discover Authors. If you’ve participated before with the author blog-in, I welcome and encourage you to join in again to get all the benefits of Discover Authors.
The format is the same: Posting books in blog posts as a group to compound our audience. The rules are the same. Everything is still Free!
The benefits of the new format:
Come join a party of talented Indie authors at the Holiday Blog Hop! You can win lots of great books and there will be tons of freebies.
Congratulations Gaele! You win the $25 Christmas Gift donation in your name to Orphan Relief and Rescue. Your name was chosen through http://www.random.org. I will email you for details on how to credit the donation.
Thank you to all the entrants! For as long as the Christmas gifts are collected through ORR’s website for this Christmas, if you give a $25 Christmas gift of your own on the site and then forward your confirmation email to me at katepolicani @ gmail.com, I’ll reply with coupons for all my books free from Smashwords in all ebook formats, no expiration date. (Please delete the private information in the email first!)
It’s not too late to sign up TODAY (Nov 16) for the author blog-in! I know you last-minute cats out there like to jump in when the ride starts. Jump! Post about your book and email me at katepolicani(at)gmail.com to grab one of those extra slots!
For you rockin’ authors who have signed up, don’t forget to send me your post link if you haven’t already! I want to be sure we all get our books shared.
Thank you for visiting the Blog-in and extra thanks to our wonderful authors participating! Don’t forget to sign up for October’s Author Blog-in! Please visit my book, The Disenchanted Pet, on these awesome blogs:
http://harshadpassion.wordpress.com/blog/
http://sharonscrazycats.blogspot.com/
http://therapywriting.wordpress.com/
Sharon’s such a good sport that I read and reviewed her book just for the Blog-in! Read it here: http://katepolicanisreviews.wordpress.com/2012/09/14/the-end-of-the-world-sucks-by-sharon-trembley/
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.
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.
Author blog-in first book!
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.
After a little bit of digging for people’s experiences with book marketing services, I realized this is going to have to be an ongoing investigation and report process. Overall it seemed that everybody was interested but hadn’t had any experiences. I only managed to get a few and I only included ones with people’s direct experience with the service. Here’s what I found:
KindlePromo – “actively promotes” books with tweets £15 for Indie Book Listing service
Kindle Daily Nation – $160 “with no result” (used to be great but saturated with too many books)
BookWhirl – SCAM! http://forums.writersweekly.com/viewtopic.php?t=8338
Goddess Fish Promotions – (5-blog tour and reviews, $30) “didn’t break even” but supplied publicity.
Orangeberry Summer Splash Tour – participant’s tour hasn’t begun yet (August)- $25
Sizzling PR – “Nice people and very affordable.” $15 up to $75 blog tour options
99 cent Network – No obvious return for money ($45 intro rate for 3 months) and no visibility of book on site. No answers to emails inquiring about where to find the book.
A few more were mentioned but they didn’t provide more than names. I’m bargain hunting enough at this stage that if the one who mentions it doesn’t talk about price and their website doesn’t talk about price, then I figure they’re too expensive or don’t cater to self-published authors.
The conversational approach seems to work better than a poll, and people in the forums had the most to say.
Anyone else had any experiences, good or bad, with a book marketing company?
If you’re still interested, I still have slots for the Author Blog-in! All genres are welcome. If you were unsure about it because you didn’t quite understand here is a different explanation:
Write a post about your book.
Schedule it for July 6th, the first day of the Blog-in.
Everyone will re-blog your post on their sites on your day.
Then you re-blog the other authors’ posts on their days.
I’ll put all the info for all the bloggers on the page at https://katepolicani.com/author-blog-in/,
Night Sky Summary
After losing Sarah, the friend he’s loved, to some other guy, Jameson meets Sky. Her Native American roots, fluid movements, and need for brutal honesty become addictive fast. This is good. Jameson needs distraction – his dad leaves for another woman, his mom’s walking around like a zombie, and Sarah’s new boyfriend can’t keep his hands off of her.
As he spends time with Sky and learns about her village, her totems, and her friends with drums – she’s way more than distraction. Jameson’s falling for her fast.
But Sky’s need for honesty somehow doesn’t extend to her life story – and Jameson just may need more than his new girl to keep him distracted from the disaster of his senior year.
The cool thing about Sky is that I didn’t even know she was a native girl until Jameson pulled up next to her, and then thought – Crap! This isn’t going to be easy!
My husband was the one who suggested I used someone from Alaska, and then it was easy since I’ve lived here most of my life.
I thought about her physical attributes, and then her height. So I put her in a place with tall, sharp mountains, and tall trees, and where it’s still VERY remote – not having any roads in or out. Southeast Alaska can only be gotten to by plane or boat – and there are airports in a few spots, but definitely not everywhere.
My mother’s family all lives in Southeast Alaska, and some of my best memories as a kid were going to watch the drumming and dancing in the old Tlingit meeting houses. I was able to take my kids to a drum/dance night with a Tlingit group only a few weeks ago, and it was a blast.
In the first draft of the book, there was very little of Sky’s heritage – just the totems in her room and where she’s from, because I was afraid it would take over the story. After sending it to my first group of readers, they all wanted to know more, and that’s when the AIA (American Indian Alliance) as well as the drum nights came in, creating a few of my favorite scenes.
I didn’t know Sky’s story until she told Jameson, and I didn’t know the rest of her story until it happened in the book.
I had to make sure that UNLV had an AIA chapter, and I spent a lot of time looking at Tlingit art, and doing research for the symbols on the totems to make sure that I didn’t screw it up!
I also taught high school in Alaska, and we’re required to take History of Alaska, which talks extensively about the native cultures up here. I also love the idea of matrilineal societies – where the tribal or clan affiliation is carried through the mother, not the father – so that also played a role in where Sky was from.
And even though Sky is NOT a Tlingit name – I hopefully explained that well enough in the book.
I could ramble on about this forever because I have such a huge amount of respect for the natives of Alaska, and I LOVE Tlingit artwork – the intricate simplicity and the meaning, and how cool it looks in my house ;-D
Thanks so much for having me here today!!
~ Jolene
Night Sky web site:
http://www.night-sky-book.com
Night Sky Twitter hashtag:
#NightSky
Night Sky GoodReads page:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12588673-night-sky
Jolene Perry’s Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002038196677
Jolene Perry’s Twitter:
https://twitter.com/#!/JoleneBPerry
Jolene Perry’s Website:
http://www.jolenebperry.com/
Jolene Perry’s Blog:
http://www.jolenesbeenwriting.blogspot.com/
Jolene Perry’s GoodReads:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4944599.Jolene_B_Perry
Tribute Books website:
http://www.tribute-books.com
Tribute Books Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Archbald-PA/Tribute-Books/171628704176
Tribute Books Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/TributeBooks
Tribute Books Blog Tours Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tribute-Books-Blog-Tours/242431245775186
Jolene Perry’s Bio:
Jolene grew up in Wasilla, Alaska. She graduated from Southern Utah University with a degree in political science and French, which she used to teach math to middle schoolers.
After living in Washington, Utah and Las Vegas, she now resides in Alaska with her husband, and two children. Aside from writing, Jolene sews, plays the guitar, sings when forced, and spends as much time outside as possible.
She is also the author of The Next Door Boys and the upcoming Knee Deep.
eBook
ISBN: 9780983741862
ISBN: 9781466052338
Pages: 247
Release: March 1, 2012
Kindle buy link
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007C5TMLE/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=tributebooks-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B007C5TMLE
iBookstore buy link
Coming soon
Smashwords buy link
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/135310?ref=tributebooks
PDF buy link
https://www.payloadz.com/go/sip?id=1567843
Read my review of Until Next Time here: http://katepolicanisreviews.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/until-next-time-by-amy-lignor/
How does a girl choose between the one who steals her heart and the one who owns her soul?
Matt and Emily were created for a specific job. Raised and trained as the ultimate angel/warrior team, they are sent down to save, defend, judge and forgive, depending on the ‘life’ they’ve been assigned. What they don’t realize is that the power of human emotions, such as love, anger, passion and fear can take over even the best of souls, causing them to make mistakes and follow paths that lead to confusion and heartache.
When the reason for their training is finally revealed, the angel/warrior team find themselves thrust into a world they know nothing about. Matt takes over the life of Daniel, a young man with a great deal of baggage. Emily becomes Liz, a girl living in a remote village who relies on nothing more than her own strength to survive. A violent storm erupts one night, and framed in the window of Liz’s establishment is a frightening face. Let in by the soul of a Good Samaritan, the two visitors bring with them a past full of secrets that could literally change an angel’s path and a warrior’s plans.
From murder to redemption, this angel/warrior team must find a way to keep the faith they have in each other in a world that’s ripping them apart.
eBook buy links
Kindle – $2.99
Nook – $4.95
iBookstore – $4.99
Google – $3.79
Smashwords – $4.99
PDF – $4.95
Read my review of The Last Dawn here: http://katepolicanisreviews.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/the-last-dawn-by-christina-lasater/
Or you could just go buy it!
The Last Dawn begins in late 2055 during the last few days of Earth. As Earth’s demise is imminent, Madison Weatherly and her former flame, James, reunite. Only a few hours remain for life on the dying planet when the entire population is dispersed throughout the universe. As Madison tries to adjust to a new life on a new planet and far away from her love, the desire to be with him never wavers. When an unexpected opportunity comes to leave her planet to find him, Madison takes off on a risky adventure through the galaxies.
What a cutie!
Christina Lasater is a freelance writer. Her articles can be found on websites such as Examiner.com and Yahoo! Contributor Network. The Last Dawn is Christina’s debut novel. Christina resides in her home state of Texas with her fiance and two young children.
Please enjoy this excerpt from the urban fantasy novel, The Day of First Sun. Then read on to learn how you can win huge prizes as part of this blog tour, including $450 in Amazon gift cards, a Kindle Fire, and 5 autographed copies of the book.
Sturtagaard chose not to speak, though it was he who had called for the meeting. They both checked their watches and realized they had been sitting across from him for ten minutes, watching him sniff the air. If he wanted to play this, they would play along at least for a little while longer, though both were tired of the leering. As the vampire sniffed again, Cham finally figured out why.
“You know, you called us. We really don’t have anything to say to you, so if you’re just playing games, we’re happy to leave. I’ve got other, more important things to do than watch you sniff and leer,” Cham finally said, and stood up.
Sturtagaard smiled as he watched Cham open the door because he much preferred dealing with Annie, but when she stood up, too, he realized he’d overplayed his hand.
“If I talk, my employer will have me staked. I’d like some assurance that you won’t do the same,” he said rather quickly, before they left.
They turned and looked at him, both rolling their eyes.
“I’ll have you staked if you don’t talk,” replied Cham, as he stood by the door.
“You’re out of options if you ever hope to get out of here again,” Annie said calmly, focusing on his face.
Sturtagaard squirmed a little in his seat, as Annie’s expression was somewhat disquieting and unemotional. He looked at Cham, whose face was expressionless, and then back to Annie, who hadn’t moved a muscle. The vampire sighed.
“You heard right. I was hired to create a zombie army to overthrow the Wizard Council,” Sturtagaard said. His voice remained steady and calm with resignation.
“Who wants to overthrow the Council?” asked Cham, his hand still clutching the door.
“My employer. I’ve told you, I don’t know who he is. I always dealt with his associate. He’d show up, leave notes, or send others with messages. I’ve never contacted him.” He looked from one to the other, but they both remained stony and detached. “Come on, now. I can’t give you information I don’t have.” Sturtagaard was charming.
Annie rolled her eyes again. “You really don’t have any idea who the employer is?” she asked with sarcasm.
“Really, I don’t,” he said.
“So you’re building an army of the dead. How long did you have to get this done?” Annie took out her phone and pulled out her calendar.
“He wanted it ready for September first.”
Annie looked up with a grimace, and Cham looked surprised. She didn’t need to mark the date on her calendar or research its significance, though neither could figure out why a zombie army had to be created for that day, the Day of First Sun. It was a very powerful and ancient day for good magic.
“So, your employer wants an army of the dead on that day? Why?” Cham asked in a flat, emotionless voice.
“He’s a black wizard. What do you think he wants? He wants to overthrow the Council, take over the world, practice magic in the open. You know, the typical magical fantasy.” Sturtagaard grinned because he believed that would benefit the entire supernatural world.
“Wipe the smirk off your face, Sturtagaard. Having free reign won’t be as good as you think, with all the angry mobs, torches, and stakes through the heart.”
Annie smirked at Cham, who shook his head and laughed. He waited to compose himself before looking back at the vampire.
As part of this special promotional extravaganza sponsored by Novel Publicity, the price of the Day of First Sun eBook edition is just 99 cents this week. What’s more, by purchasing this fantastic book at an incredibly low price, you can enter to win many awesome prizes. The prizes include $450 in Amazon gift cards, a Kindle Fire, and 5 autographed copies of the book.
All the info you need to win one of these amazing prizes is RIGHT HERE. Remember, winning is as easy as clicking a button or leaving a blog comment–easy to enter; easy to win!
To win the prizes:
Help my blog win:
The tour blogger who receives the most votes in the traffic-breaker poll will win a $100 gift card. When you visit Novel Publicity’s site to fill-out the contest entry form, don’t forget to VOTE FOR ME.
About the book: A vampire, a rogue wizard and an army of soulless zombies are par for the course for Annie Pearce and Bobby “Cham” Chamsky of the Wizard’s Guard. But when the non-magical princess, Amelie of Amborix, is murdered by magical means, a deeper plot unfolds. Get it on Amazon.
About the author: Behind the wheel of her ’66 Mustang Convertible, Sheryl is a constant surprise, using her sense of humor and relatable style make her books something everyone can enjoy. Visit Sheryl on her website, Twitter, Facebook, or GoodReads.
Please enjoy this guest post by Brian Holers, author of the literary novel, Doxology. Then read on to learn how you can win huge prizes as part of this blog tour, including $450 in Amazon gift cards, a Kindle Fire, and 5 autographed copies of the book.
One of the beauties of self-publishing is that the gatekeeper has been fired. In this new world of books made possible by the Internet, no one is left to guard the door. To tell the reader what is what. This state of affairs may introduce an element of confusion for dogmatic readers, but the good news is, new breeds of literature are being created.
Self-publishing allows literature to cross over in new ways. Traditional Christian fiction publishers, for instance, disallow most references to sex, and even the most juvenile profanity. Self-publishing changes this. Not to suggest a writer should ever debase a genre—as writers we are obliged to choose our words carefully. But the old Christian books kept many readers away. “I’m not going to read that. That’s Christian. It’s boring.” Still, nearly every Christian I know periodically swears, fights, and even becomes amorous from time to time. Christians like good stories too, with depth of character, excitement, whimsy, action. The success of a book like The Shack shows the need for stories of real people dealing with real problems, in a faith-based context. It doesn’t even have to be good literature.
As humans, we all look for answers. Stories are stories. Conflict builds to crisis, which leads to a form of resolution. Sure, some people never doubt their faiths, even in the face of horrible tragedy. Others do. Some never ascribed to a faith in the first place, and instead spend their days casting about for a context to this condition we call humanness. The problem with much traditional Christian literature is this; when a character is pushed to a crisis, and the only change we read is “he fell on his knees, then and there, and accepted Jesus into his heart,” that incident may describe a beautiful sentiment, and may have value to a real person in real life, but as a reader, it doesn’t tell me anything. A reader wants details. He wants to see the sweat break out. She wants to hear the thoughts and words that accompany the character’s condition. Literature is literature. We want to see development. We want to get inside the characters. We want to get to know them. That’s why we care. Regardless of the genre label put on the book.
Doxology is a story in between. The book has a religious message; given its primary setting in rural north Louisiana, that message is Christian. But the characters are just people. They experience the same emotions all people do—love, joy, loss. Their conflicts grow and grow until they must be resolved. Like real people, they go astray, take paths of separation from God, or just from what is good for them. They experience desires that can never be fulfilled, want things that can never be had or even understood. They discover the traits in their lives that aren’t working, and set out to find new habits that will work. Many Christian values are universal—a belief, despite evidence to the contrary, that our lives are worthwhile. An understanding that letting go, and learning how little we are in charge, makes life more manageable. A certainty that the kindness and compassion we offer to others is returned to us a hundredfold.
Some say God. Some say the universe. But we all–when we’re honest, and when we pay attention, have a sense of something looking out for us, giving us what we need. Putting people we need into our lives. We give credit for these gifts as we see fit. Good literature promotes a point of view by showing the reader how a character’s modes of operation and beliefs work for her (or don’t). Good literature, whatever its genre, lets the reader inside. Lets the reader do part of the work. Doxology, in this vein, is a story at the crossroad of God and man. It presents God as the characters experience God, and as real people experience God, looking out for them, giving them what they need. Coming to understand how God has been there all along.
Doxology is a love story. Faith plays a role, as it helps the characters find answers and resolution, improves their lives. Like Jody and Vernon and the others, we all look for redemption from brokenness of the past. They and we find it, as people both real and imaginary alike do, in family, friends, productive work, a sense of place, a faith in something greater. Doxology is a story, first and foremost. Its characters face problems. Their conflicts grow. They look for resolutions and ultimately find them, imperfect as they are. We the readers get to know them, and we care. We sympathize. They matter.
As part of this special promotional extravaganza sponsored by Novel Publicity, the price of the Doxology eBook edition is just 99 cents this week. What’s more, by purchasing this fantastic book at an incredibly low price, you can enter to win many awesome prizes. The prizes include $450 in Amazon gift cards, a Kindle Fire, and 5 autographed copies of the book.
All the info you need to win one of these amazing prizes is RIGHT HERE. Remember, winning is as easy as clicking a button or leaving a blog comment–easy to enter; easy to win!
To win the prizes:
Help my blog win:
The tour blogger who receives the most votes in the traffic-breaker poll will win a $100 gift card. When you visit Novel Publicity’s site to fill-out the contest entry form, don’t forget to VOTE FOR ME.
About the book: Fathers, sons and brothers reconnect over tragedy in this blue-collar Southern tale of love, loss, and the healing power of community and family. Get it on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
About the author: An arborist by day and a novelist in every moment he can steal, Brian makes up stories from the treetops. Visit Brian on his website, Twitter, Facebook, or GoodReads.
Be like Lorenzo: patronize an artist like me!
Kate Policani 