Month: September 2012

Thank you to author Terri Guiliano for hosting the Celebrating Bloggers Blog Hop!

Why do I love bloggers? Let me count the ways!

First, why I love book bloggers, then author bloggers.

Book Bloggers. I’d never even heard of book bloggers before my first novel launched. Now I’ve had the pleasure to interact online and even meet bloggers in real life.

I love book bloggers for the FRIENDSHIP with these lovely ladies:

* Smash at Smash Attack Reads Ash/Smash is a licensed social worker so we’ve had fun exploring psychology and therapy in books. Our reading tastes are different–she likes to escape into paranormal and fantasy, whereas I love reading books about dysfunctional families and trauma in gritty reality. (And that brings me to another reason I love bloggers–exposure to books unfamiliar to me). Still, Smash took the time to read and review my psychological thrillers With Good Behavior and Bad Behavior.

* Autumn at The Autumn Review and Andrea at The Bookish Babe Autumn is a swimmer (yay!) and Andrea likes heart-wrenching stories, so we bonded on my book tour for Streamline. These two gals are great friends too. I love how tight the book blogging community is.

* Jenny at Supernatural Snark and Dani at Refracted Light Reviews Jenny and Dani both live in the same Ohio town where I reside. I’ve had the opportunity to meet them both, and it’s great to chat with fellow book lovers. Jenny made some beautiful business cards for me (she has a wedding business) and Dani wrote a fantastic review of Streamline.

Author Bloggers. I’ve met some really cool people who happen to write books.

I love author bloggers for their SUPPORT through this writing adventure.

* Nicki Elson at Nicki Elson’s Not-So-Deep Thoughts (that blog title says it all, heh) Nicki is a fellow Omnific Publishing author who’s a ton of fun, and her sexy 80’s romp Three Daves carries on the fun theme.

* Jessica Subject at Mark of the Stars Jessica has supported my writing and I loved her alien short story Celestial Seduction.

* Alex Cavanaugh at Alex J Cavanaugh Do you see that Insecure Writers Support Group button on the sidebar of my blog? Alex created that group, and he amazes me with the amount of support he provides to fellow authors. He writes sci-fi.

* Kyra Lennon at Write Here, Write Now I met Kyra through Blogging A to Z and delighted in her posts about her sports romance Game On. I love sports romance and I can’t wait to read her book.

So there you have it — friendship and support are the two biggies for why I love bloggers. Check out the Celebrating Blogging Hop HERE.

ISWG Update: A couple of months ago I posted about setting the best price for ebooks. I’m happy to report that when my publisher lowered the price from $6.99 to $2.99 for two of my novels, sales improved for all three of my novels! Now, it’s not to the level where I can consider quitting my day job as psychologist (not even CLOSE), but it makes me happy to know that more readers are finding my books.

Today’s post is in response to author Darcia Helle tagging me for the blog challenge THE NEXT BIG THING. It all started from author Gail Baugniet HERE. The rules are:

Answer 10 questions about my current WIP (Work-In-Progress)
Tag five other writers and link their blogs so we can all hop over and read their answers.

What is the working title of your book?
Where did the idea come from for the book?
What genre does your book fall under?
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Who or What inspired you to write this book?
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

I liked Gail’s idea to answer one question a week, with the hope her WIP would be finished at the end of ten weeks. I’m 70,000 words into my WIP, so that’s a challenging yet realistic goal for me with my full-time job.

So, today’s question is: What is the working title of your book?

On Best Behavior (The Conduct Series #3)

Ta-da!

Now I’m tagging five writers for The Next Best Thing Blog Challenge. Tell us about your WIP…

Nicki Elson (blog)
Carol Oates (blog)
Jessica Subject (blog)
Cherie Colyer (blog)
Roland Yeomans (blog)

Two announcements to end this post:

1. I’m giving away an ebook of YA sports romance Streamline at Laurie’s blog until 9/22. Stop by to hear why I use a pen name and other strange information.

2. Thanks to fellow author Carol Oates, my free YA short story Swim Recruit has a new cover and wider availability on Smashwords.

This is my first story up on Smashwords and I’m finding it to be an awesome site. If you enjoy an Irish faerie short story, check out Carol Oates The Summer Prince HERE.

Writers, here’s to being bold and confident this month. *cheers*