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Showing posts from July, 2012

Insecure Writers Support Group: Who Supports You?

Are you watching the Olympics? I can't get enough--staying up after midnight watching every swim, every floor routine. I find it especially emotional to watch the parents and the coaches react to their athletes' performances. It's the athletes who work their butts off every day , and I take nothing from them. But this post is to celebrate their support team. Thanks, Mom! Who first believed in you ? Who first told you "Your writing's really great!" Who said "Maybe you should get this published?!?" Whoever that was, you know how important he or she is to your writing career. Only writers know how grueling it is to finish a novel, but we also realize it's even harder when we go it alone. Having loved ones, friends, and mentors to encourage us makes the path to publication a lot lighter. I'm blessed to have many supporters on my team. Elementary school teachers who praised my fledgling creative writing efforts...college profes

Swim Reading Challenge

Are you ready for the Olympics ? I'm totally stoked, especially to watch my favorite sport of swimming. To celebrate Olympic swimming and my Young Adult swimming novel Streamline going on sale in August, I'm hosting the SWIM READING CHALLENGE ! cc: An Honorable German The challenge is to read all kinds of books about swimming--novels, short stories, memoirs, biographies, etc. between August and December of 2012. To participate, post the above button to your blog and leave a comment on this post with your blog url. When you review a swimming novel on your blog, please return and leave a comment with your blog post url and I'll tweet the heck out of it. (Swimming lovers gotta stick together). To get us started on some recommendations, I created a list on Goodreads HERE . My favorite swimming novels include: 1. Young Woman and the Sea by Glenn Stout HERE ...The riveting tale of the first woman to swim across the English Channel 2. Age Is Just a Number by Dara Torr

Review: Feel the Heat by Cindy Gerard

I've been reading, writing, and swimming more than I've been blogging lately, so I plan to share some of my book reviews now and then. As part of the All Summer, All Series reading challenge , I just finished Feel the Heat by Cindy Gerard. It's book #4 in the Black Ops Series: Black Ops by Cindy Gerard (Romantic Suspense ): 3. Whisper No Lies 4. Feel the Heat 5. Risk No Secrets 6. With No Remorse 7. Last Man Standing (I have signed copies of the last two from RT!) Feel the Heat by Cindy Gerard My rating: 5 of 5 stars I felt the heat! And the emotion. I'm really enjoying the Black Ops series by Cindy Gerard (thanks for the recommendation, Buggy!) Each setting and story is unique and compelling. This time the main character is a woman (BJ) so hurt by the past that she's terrified of falling in love. Typically that's a role reserved for a man, and it was refreshing to read this gender twist. BJ works as a U.S. Defense Intelligence officer whose

Never Give Up, Never Surrender

Guest post alert! Today I'm thrilled to have Debra Johnson share an inspirational message for all writers. Take it away, Debra! Never Give Up, Never Surrender If you’ve ever watched Galaxy Quest , then you know where the title of this post comes from. This idea is essential for all the writers of the world.  “Never, never, never give up!” -  Winston Churchill Writing is hard. You almost never got the recognition you deserve. A lot of things are against you. There are many writers out there, and some may be better than you. There are few places that will pay you to write. Very few people can make a successful life writing. Most writers will never be published. Even fewer of those that are published will ever be noted. Even fewer of those that are noted will be financially successful.  Feel like giving up now? Yeah, me too. But you can’t. Being a writer is more than a job or a hobby, it is a passion nobody can squelch. What you have to remember is that you

Summer Lovin' Giveaway

Summer lovin', had me a blast Summer lovin', happened so fast! Welcome to the Summer Lovin' Giveaway, hosted by the wonderful Kathy from I Am a Reader, Not a Writer blog and Tifferz Book Review. I'm offering an ebook of my Young Adult sports romance / murder mystery STREAMLINE to an international winner. Seems like Leo Scott has it all: looks, brains, and athletic talent. He's captain of his high school swim team with a bright future in college and beyond. But Leo has secrets. His mother's crippling car accident has devastated his family and left Leo to deal with his father's abuse, battered and alone. Leo's girlfriend Audrey Rose is poised for her own share of success. As one of Florida's top high school swimmers, Audrey dreams of college swimming stardom. But there's an obstacle to her glorious rise to the top. Her number-one supporter-her father-is in prison for murder.    Part murder mystery, part tale of young love in a m

Surrender by Pamela Clare: Review

Today I'm over at Just Romantic Suspense blog talking about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in fictional characters. If you leave a comment, you enter a giveaway for With Good Behavior , my novel featuring PTSD. I'm working through series for the All Summer, All Series challenge and I just finished book one in the MacKinnon's Rangers series by Pamela Clare: Surrender. I adore Ms. Clare's romantic suspense I-Team series, and I already love her take on historical romance. The best news is I just won a signed copy of book #3, Defiant , from Karla and Steffi at Swept Away by Romance blog ! Woo hoo! Surrender by Pamela Clare My rating: 5 of 5 stars What a shock--another 5 star review for a Pamela Clare novel! Here I thought she couldn't top her romantic suspense I-Team series but she comes damn close with this first novel in her historical romance series MacKinnon's Rangers . I know the series' third novel, Defiant , just came out, and I can't

Insecure Writers Support Group: Price Points

I continue to learn so much about marketing my novels. One important aspect of selling books is their PRICE. How do you feel about the price your publisher sets for your novels? Or, if you're self-published, how do you go about pricing your novels? Recently I bought an ebook recommended by a Goodreads friend. The author wasn't known to me, but because her book was only $2.99, I eagerly purchased it. That got me thinking of my own novels. My publisher has set the price of my ebooks at $6.99. How willing is a reader to shell out this amount on an unknown author? Since I'm not a famous bestselling author, many readers will feel like they're taking a chance on me, and that's an expensive chance. All the more reason I was ecstatic when Omnific Publishing put my novel With Good Behavior on sale for $2.99 this month for the Freedom Sale. Check here to find some great Omnific titles on sale, like Three Daves by fellow IWSG author Nicki Elson, Seers of Light