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It’s My Birthday . . . Again!

June 15, 2018 by Rebecca Forster in category The Write Life by Rebecca Forster, Writing tagged as birthday, gifts, giveaway, links, Memories, writing, writing craft

My birthday is June 16. I only know it’s my birthday because my husband keeps reminding me of the date, asking me what I want, and telling me we should celebrate. He has to do this because, in my family, I am legendary for not remembering birthdays. I forget my sister’s birthday even though we were born on the same day but fourteen years apart. My birthday piggybacks Father’s Day, too. I remember Father’s Day because there are lots of TV commercials for steaks, tools and aftershave. Rebecca’s birthday? Not so much.

There is also the matter of age. After the shock of the first AARP envelope at forty, the assisted living brochures at fifty and the burial at sea pitches when I turned sixty, I started taking birthdays in stride. Seriously, there isn’t much that can surprise me anymore on the aging score.

Lest you think me a birthday Scrooge, let me share the one thing I love about birthdays. I love the memory of them. When I was a little girl my mom threw awesome birthday parties for my brothers and sisters and me. I was number two in a six-pack and birthdays were celebrated with the neighborhood kids, balloons and a big homemade cake. In the backyard, we played tag, hide-and-seek and pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey. There were prizes for the winners but everyone went home with a gift bag. Even at my own birthday party it was that little gift bag I treasured most. I adored that there was always more than one thing: a couple pieces of candy, a silly toy that would break a day later, a paper crown. This bag was a treasure hunt, something unexpected, some thing that, in those lean days, mom would never buy just because. Those parties taught me that unexpected gifts can be the best things in the world.

So, in honor of my mother and the memories of those wonderful parties, I would like to give you a gift. Before Her Eyes is a thriller that will hopefully keep you up at night, but it’s also a very personal story, written when both my dad and my father-in-law were ill. It is a gift of my craft and a little bit of me thrown in to boot and it’s all wrapped up in the memory of a child’s party.

ClaimBefore Her Eyes here until July 1:

https://dl.bookfunnel.com/7tlkgv8nou

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Once upon a manuscript…by Jina Bacarr

June 11, 2018 by Jina Bacarr in category Jina’s Book Chat, Writing tagged as books, chocolate, Cinderella, coffee, fairy tale, prince, writing

You know the drill. You write a wonderful story, pour your heart into it, and send it off.

Then you wait.

You drink coffee, refuse to let anyone come between you and your phone so you can check your email 24/7, you obsess, eat chocolate, exercise to work off said chocolate so you can eat more, then give up eating altogether because your throat is so tight from the stress, you binge watch everything you can on TV so you can forget the horror of waiting and wish you’d fall into a hundred years’ sleep so the pain will go away.

A major run-on sentence. But that’s life in the “waiting to hear back from the publisher who requested the full” in the manuscript world.

Okay, so what do you do?

Write another book.

You’ve heard it before and I agree, but it’s also important to take some “me” time. After all, you’ve been taking care of your characters, who can be quite demanding, keep you up at nights, make you cry and drink coffee nonstop, so now it’s time to put your feet up and relax.

Then work on another book.

Writers are not machines.

We need nurturing, healthy food, exercise, fresh air, and social interaction. So as I sit here writing this and waiting to hear back on my manuscript, I’m going to do just that.

I’m going for a walk to the nearby coffee shack, have a mocha coffee and, God help me, a warm croissant oozing with raspberries and melting chocolate chips.

And just breathe.

And yes, I’m bringing my phone with me.

Just in case the editor calls…

Jina

PS – I’ll update my post when I hear anything on my m/s – an Italian billionaire prince story and his Cinderella.

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Finding Violet

June 10, 2018 by Tari Jewett in category Charmed Writer by Tari Lynn Jewett tagged as Beth Yarnall, books, edits, Nikki Prince, Priest, reading, Sierra Simone, writing

The start of the library I dreamed of as a little girl, doll and all.

As a little girl I dreamed of having my own library, a room filled from floor to ceiling with books just for me. And to go along with it, of course…unlimited time to read. I suppose that right now I have most of that. As my boys moved out I made one bedroom into a sewing room, and the other into a library filled with books.

Of course, as kids do, my youngest son moved back home last summer to go back to college. He’s sleeping in my library. Rather than pack up all of my books, he moved in another full bookshelf. Now, I worry that my son will be covered in an avalanche of books if we have an earthquake!

So, I have the books, and that doesn’t include what’s on my Kindle, and because my boys are all adults, and I’m no longer working, I have time. I can read all day long if I want. Or I can write.

I’m writing full time, well between loads of laundry, loads of dishes, and feeding my guys. Most of the reading I do is for friends, and while I enjoy working with friends, and it’s important for us to help each other out…I have good friends they reciprocate. There’s nothing like reading a book just to read, just to get lost in a really good story.

But I’m editing a historical novel and writing some novellas, romantic comedies right now, and I’m trying to focus, so there’s been little reading for the pure pleasure of it. I’ve learned so much in the last few years, and editing my historical novel has been exciting, educational and sometimes overwhelming. At one point my editor made notes that I needed to dig deeper to show Violet, my heroine’s growth, I needed to share more with my reader. I thought I knew what she meant, but I wasn’t sure. I poured through my manuscript. I could see places that could use more emotion, partially because Jenny had made notations by many them out, and partially because now that she’d pointed some out, I could see more. I sat at my desk digging into Violet’s soul. I could feel her hurt, her frustration and her fear, but I was having a hard time getting into the page. So, I walked away.

I loaded the washer, unloaded the dishwasher, found other chores that needed done. Eventually, I had to come back to my desk. I played a game of solitaire, then checked in on my friends on facebook. My friend, Author Nikki Prince (who is moving out of state, and I wish her the best, but will miss her terribly) had asked for suggestions for new books to read. Author Beth Yarnall and several others had recommended Sierra Simone’s book, Priest. Now this book may not be for everyone, it’s pretty steamy, and I’d consider it controversial. (Aunt Gloria if you’re reading this, this is not a book suggestion for you!)

So, I downloaded the book to my Kindle…I wasn’t getting much work done anyway.

From the very first words I was hooked. I devoured three hundred and forty-eight pages in one sitting. It had been a long time since I’d done that. I could feel Father Tyler’s compassion, his desire, his struggle with self-restraint, his suffering.

And when I finished the book, I felt renewed, and ready to write. I wanted my readers to feel as though they’d lived Violet’s life when they closed the book and I knew what I needed to do to get more from Violet. I went back to my manuscript, back to page one.

Now, I haven’t finished my edits, and I don’t know if Editor Jenny will be satisfied with what I’ve done, but I feel Violet’s frustration, her desire, her guilt and her fear. I feel Violet, and I hope that my readers will too.

The point of this is, that I’ve realized I need to read. I need to pick up a book just to hear a new voice, to live someone else’s life, to remember why I want to write.

So, make your suggestions now! What books have changed your writing? What books have left you wrung out, energized or in awe. What should be next on my reading list?

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WRITERS STILL WRITE by Linda O. Johnston

June 6, 2018 by Linda O. Johnston in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as #amwriting, adversity, career, writing

Writers Still Write | Linda O. Johnston | A Slice of Orange

Exactly a year ago my blog post here at A Slice of Orange was called “Writers Write. Oh, Yeah!” It was about my efforts to get my mind back on track for writing after I broke my knee–and I was becoming at least somewhat successful.

So why is this post titled “Writers Still Write”? Because I’m at a different stage of my career, yet I’m once more concerned about my writing and what’s next.

You see, I just finished a manuscript that is currently in the hands of my beta reader. I believe it’s the first manuscript for which I ever had to ask for a deadline extension—mostly because of several edits coming in quickly from another publisher as well as travel and family plans. I intend to jump right in and get it ready to send off as soon as I receive comments.

The other strange thing? Recently, I’ve had a lot of deadlines to meet . . . but this is the last story I’m currently under contract for. That’s become unusual—particularly since I have four books being published this year!

And so I’m wondering what’s next.

I haven’t had a lot of time to work on new proposals lately, though I do have some ideas I’m submitting. Plus, just for the fun if it, I’m working on an idea for a story, possibly a series, that’s outside my current realm of cozy mysteries and romantic suspense.

Will it work out? Who knows? But . . . yes, this writer is still writing and giving it a try. And though I’m pretty much only traditionally published, I’ll also consider self-publishing.

I’d love to know how many of you who are reading this also have stepped outside their usual, established genre(s) and tried something else—and what’s happened.

Meanwhile, I’m giving my subconscious some new orders–or at least the kind of order I haven’t focused on much lately . . . like do something different and do it well!

Linda

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Now Open…The Author Store [Part One]

June 5, 2018 by Tracy Reed in category Pink Pad by Tracy Reed tagged as Marketing. Advertising, subscription boxes, writing

Facebook Ads| Tracy Read | A Slice of Orange Happy June.

I have been researching a new project. No, it’s not about writing an insane amount of books in some crazy time span. I want to talk about Author Stores.

I don’t know if you’ve paid attention to something that seems to have popped up over night…Author Stores. I’m not sure who’s store was the first to grab my attention, but I know I’ve visited quite a few in the past few months. How did I miss this? I come from a retail background and I missed the launch of this marketing concept. As an Indie Writer, I understand I wear several hats: producer, manufacturer and wholesale distributor. Retail Proprietor, apart from selling signed book, never occurred to me.

In my retail business, occasionally, I produce or private label items. However, it never occurred to me to do the same for my books. At one time, I did briefly post my poetry book on my lingerie site, but took it down. It didn’t feel right. However, that’s about to change.

My awakening to this phenomenon came after reading a Brenda Novak post on BookBub [9 Book Advertising Tactics I’ve Tried… And Which Ones Worked!]. In the nine advertising things she tried several caught my eye, but the one about subscription book boxes really stuck out.

Now I was familiar with subscription boxes and to be honest, who hasn’t? Let’s talk, author friend to author friend. There are subscription boxes for everything. And I mean that literally. In my quest to research this, I found boxes for mixology, your pet, coffee/tea/hot chocolate, beauty/spa, fitness wear, clothing and my favorite feminine hygiene. Let’s take a pause, that last one really caught my eye. It include the obvious item, plus jewelry, chocolate and tea. Man, why couldn’t I have created that one.

Back to what I was saying. After reading Brenda’s blog post, I began researching. In my search, I discovered, apart from the companies that sponsor book subscription boxes, which seem to be more difficult to get into than my skinny jeans from ten years ago, but authors doing their own boxes. Bingo! That was it. If all these premium and newbie authors could do it, why couldn’t I. Pause for reflection. The last time I tried something someone else did, I wrote and published twelve plus titles in a year. I’m sure this will be a lot easier to copy.

This is where the Author Store discovery happened. In stalking, I found out not only were authors selling subscription boxes, but a host of other things as well. I saw stores with mugs, blankets, stadium cups, t-shirts, hats, journals, jewelry, candles, the list goes on. Oh yeah, and signed books. Here I thought I was doing well to offer links for my ebooks plus signed copies on my website.

Retail selling is my world. I know about online shopping, that’s what I do. I know wholesale shopping, private label products, gift packaging. Heck, I started out selling gift baskets and know how to get stuff. So how is it I missed this? It’s bad enough I have no swag to mention. Now let me explain that. I forgot as a writer that I have to think like a reader/consumer. I personally don’t collect a lot of branded items. Let me clarify. I collect designer clothes, shoes, bags and accessories. I do like to collect those cards Kate Spade puts out every month. But, I’m not the chip clip, pen, button, bag, mug, stickie notes girl. It has to be really amazing for me to get it. But after several conversations with the swag lady, she opened my eyes. It’s not about what I like, but about what will attract the reader. These little things I find insignificant, help to keep my name in the reader’s face. And if they like the item and your book, they’ll tell their friends, “Hey you have got to read this author. Oh yeah, and she gave me this amazing….”.

In my quest to sell more books, I forgot a key marketing principle “Seven Touches”. There have been studies about this. Apparently it takes seven touches before someone makes a decision to buy your product. Now I get it. The little things I thought were a waste of money are my seven touches.

This is bigger than just a few pieces of swag and the occasional reader contest, this is a side hustle and only limited by your imagination. And if it’s done correctly, it could become very lucrative. Plus you could sell a lot of books.

I’m putting on my retailer hat and building a new store, “The Sophisticated Reader Store”. Step one: A Coming Soon Sign…done.

Have an amazing month.

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