Wow . . .

. . . A new post, admit it you're surprised aren't you?

So am I.

I apologize, my family life has had some critical emergencies that demanded my time, and the anti muse (my one year old) is as busy and trouble making as ever. (He's trying to destroy the clothes drying rack as I type.)

Alot of things happening here in the household. Some awesome, some heartbreaking. But we're alive and well.

Ome critical thing i have learned lately in my writin is that distance is a good thing. In the midst of the crisis I put everything writing wise away and focused on my kid who needed help. Well today I came back and re-read some of it. Not only was it easier to add and cut some needed things but it felt "fresh" to me and i was able to not only see that I liked what I had been working on, but i could see where it needed help.

So if your feeling bored and tired of your WIP, maybe you should shelve it for a few weeks. IT worked for me.

Guest Blog Post by Christine Fonseca

Today I am pleased to bring you a guest post by a wonderful friend and author Christine Fonseca. She has a new novella and novel coming out this month and she was gracious to offer a guest post in exchange for some exposure on my blog. So without further distraction, here is her article.

Top 5 Things to Think About with Book Promotion.

I am no stranger to book launches. I’ve successfully launched two educational titles that continue to exceed publisher expectations a year or more later. I’ve also working in marketing previously. But launching fiction to a YA market is different. Sure, I can connect with writers who also read YA – but connecting with my teen readers? That is definitely a new challenge.

Building on things I already knew, things I’ve observed, and things my fabulous YA readers tell me—here are my top five things every writer should think about when planning their book promotion and self-marketing efforts.

1. Know Your Market.
Before you design a promotional campaign of any form, it’s important to have a clear understanding of your primary and secondary markets. With nonfiction, most authors figured this out when they wrote the “marketing” section of their proposals. Fiction authors should go through this process too. Ask yourself who the book is for—teens, children, adults? Who is the secondary market for the book? With DIES IRAE, I knew the primary reader would be both adults and teens, with the trend being adults as the novella is exclusively offered in digital format. With the upcoming novel, LACRIMOSA, the demographic may shift as it will available in both print and digit formats, and teens still trend towards print.

2. Know Your Comfort Zone.
As with all forms of social networking and marketing, it is important to know your own personal strengths and weaknesses. Are you comfortable speaking in person to a large group, or is Skyping or chatting more your thing? Do you like to cold call potential hosts for tours, or does the thought of that give you hives? Knowing your comfort zone is important. Don’t spent a lot of time doing things you hate—you will only make yourself crazy. Instead, spend your time promoting in ways that you are comfortable with. In today’s market, you are really only limited in terms of promotion by your own comfort level. So, get to know what works best for you and your book.

3. Blog Tours and other Author Events.
Connecting directly with readers is my personal favorite—whether it is a virtual connection, or a school visit/author event. The important thing to remember with either option—planning.

With blog tours, ask people in your particular niche to host a leg. If you are targeting teens, for example, try to have a blog that is frequented by teens host a leg of the tour. Make sure you are balancing book bloggers with writers, thereby tapping into a larger potential audience.

With Author events, you want to look at the entire scoop of options. I LOVE school events, for example, so I will be doing a few school visits before the big LA Book Festival, using the visits as a way to also encourage attendance at the LA event.

A couple of other things to keep in mind with any type of author event – virtual or live:
• Start early. Proper planning of events is really a key.
• Know the expectations of the host. Ask questions about how they envision your visit, or what they see as their role in the blog tour.
• Stay organized. Use spreadsheets and other organization tools to keep track of the places you pitched too, the hosts of your tour, and any giveaways. Follow up and double check everything. By you being organized, you will make it MUCH easier for your hosts—something they will really appreciate.
• Send reminders to participants. We are all busy and it is easy to forget things. Take on that burden and don’t be alarmed when things get forgotten. Just be prepared. That said, don’t spam your hosts. We all tend to get TONS of email. Make certain you have all of your ideas/thoughts/reminders/etc well planned and clearly stated. One detailed email is better than several chaotic ones. Take the time to think things through.
• Remember to follow-up with a thank you. There is no substitution for good manners! Personal thank you notes go a long way to letting your hosts know how much you appreciated working with them

4. Creatively Using Social Networking sites.
Promoting your message is about creating buzz. In this day and age, it is easier than ever to create buzz on a large scale. But, how do you separate yourself from all the noise out there? That’s easy. Be creative. Do something unique and different—and then make sure EVERYONE knows about it. With the Requiem series, there is great potential for Fan Art sites, quizzes on facebook, scavenger hunts, products for teens, etc. You know I will be working on these specific things with each book released. Furthermore, promoting where teens hangout on line, including facebook, is a great way to get your book out there.

5. You Are Only As Good As Your Last Book.
The very best promotional tool for your book is another fabulous book. So be sure to keep writing, creating, producing. This is who you cultivate a career that extends beyond your first book.










FAQ Sheet about the Requiem Series
About Christine Fonseca
School psychologist by day, critically acclaimed YA and nonfiction author by night, Christine Fonseca believes that writing is a great way to explore humanity. Her debut YA Gothic series, The Requiem Series, including DIES IRAE and LACRIMOSA, examines the role of redemption, sacrifice and love. When she’s not writing or spending time with her family, she can be sipping too many skinny vanilla lattes at her favorite coffee house or playing around on Facebook and Twitter. Catch her daily thoughts about writing and life on her blog.

Short Blurb for DIES IRAE
Some sacrifices should never be made—even for love.
Mikayel lives by one rule—obey the orders of the angelic Council at all costs. But when he and his friends, Azza and Demi, are sent to Earth as teenagers, following the rules is more difficult than they expected.
Being human isn’t the only problem facing the three angels. Unbeknownst to the Council, demonic activity is on the rise, threatening to break a tenuous peace that has existed for a millennia.
Caught in a struggle for power with unseen demonic forces, and fighting against his rising emotional, Mikayel must now decide how many rules he is willing to break to save his friends, a decision that could reignite an ancient war and will threaten the only thing that matters to the angels, the survival of humanity.
Author Endorcement(s):


“Dies Irae is the perfect introduction to Christine Fonseca’s Requiem series. The beauty of the words will tempt you, the tragedy of the story will break you, and the love, woven throughout like music through the trees, will haunt you for days afterward. Dies Irae promises a tale unlike any you’ve read before.”
~Ali Cross, Author of BECOME


Availability:
Publisher: COMPASS PRESS
ISBN:
Format: Digital format only - from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other retailers. Links not available at present.


Short Blurb for LACRIMOSA
As if casting out demons isn’t hard enough, five-hundred-year-old Nesy has to masquerade as a teenage girl to do it. Nesy is the best of the warrior angels called Sentinals. She never makes mistakes, never hesitates, never gets emotionally involved. Until she meets Aydan.
He is evil incarnate; a fallen angel that feeds off the souls of others. Everything Nesy is supposed to hate. But she can’t, because he’s also the love of her former life as a human girl—a life that ended too soon, tying her to emotions she was never supposed to feel.
Now Nesy must choose between doing her duty—damning Aydan to the fiery depths of hell—or saving him, and condemning herself.


Availability:
Publisher: COMPASS PRESS
ISBN: 0984786368 (ISBN 13: 9780984786367)
Hardback and Digital formats from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and fine retailers. Links not currently available.

Additional Titles in the series include LIBERA ME (Nov 2012) and REQUIEM (March 2013). The book trailer can be seen by linking to YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwTQoOFKEZg
For more information about Christine Fonseca or the series, visit her website – http://christinefonseca.com or her blog http://christinefonseca.blogspot.com

Good morning!

Wow. When I get sick I get knocked out by a train carying huge bins of coal or something like that. While my ears still feel like I'm underwater at least I'm not coughing up a lung anymore and that's a good thing because I need them.

So many things have happened I don't know where to start. I am still submitting EMERGENCE, I submitted and had a Christmas story accepted for an anthology, I am working on my first chapter entries for a conference first chapter contest. I've gotten all sorts of great comments on my first chapters. That makes me feel really good obviously.

I've been asked to prepare a emergency substitute class for a conference incase my friend gos into labor before then. I researched wrote edited and am preparing to send out a middle grade manners book to three publishers who asked for it back in MAy of last year. Considering its just been over 6 months since I talked about it to them I'm feeling pretty accomplished.

So how are things in your necks of the woods?

Short trips with large families. What I am doing wrong.

My family and I traveled to Wyoming to visit the old prison. We'd heard about it a few years ago and really wanted to take a tour. It's supposed to be really hanuted. It definitely felt creepy. My baby was fine until we entered the "death row" building and then he wanted nothing to do with that building.

My older kids also wanted to go back to Martin's Cove. Knowing that Martins Cove would be blustery and cold I decided to stay at the hotel room and edit a MS that needed to be done. With the little kids that had snotty noses from a recent cold.

Every time I do short trips I sit in the car on the way home and make a mental list of things that could have been done easier faster etc. This time I actually wrote the list down.

So since you're my captive audience I thought I'd share.

First, I need to have a "travel box" IE hard sided rubbermaid box allready stocked with paper plates, cups, plastic silverware, paper towels, disposable tablecloths and other things like this. But it needs to be bigger than that or I need two one for the paper products and one for foodand snacks that we are taking on the road. We almost left the jar of peanut butter at Flaming Gorge because it fell out and rolled under the truck.

Garbage bags for the car and hotel room. For accidents, for dirty clothes, for garbage.

Hard sided cooler, the soft sided coolers leak after a few hours.

Seperate fish cooler so the cold food doesnt smell and taste like fish.

Take at least 2-3 more sets of clothes for the little kids than you think you'll need.

Blankets or towels in the car for spills and accidents. On floor or in carseats.

Laundry soap and quarters. Dish soap if you are using non disposable sippy cups.

Individual boxes that fit under my seats for individual kids stuff so it doesnt get lost in 12 pass van.

Laminated packing list in each kids bag and in the travel box(s)

Laminated list of food that we can grab or buy as we leave. (inc allergy list) IE maybe have some bread and tortillas frozen and hidden so we can just take off and let them thaw.

Make sure we have a master list so things like the babys porta bed doesnt get left at home. Inc, where the stuff is stored at home.

Now before you think that this trip was a disaster it wasn't. The 14 yo did leave the porta crib at home but the hotel had one we could borrow.

Things we did right.

I on a whim grabbed two extra pants and underwear for the preeschooler incase of accients.

I also brought a bag of toys for the one year old knowing we'd be in the hotel room all day. MAJOR RIGHT THING TO DO!!!

Most kids brought blankets sleeping bags and pillows for the pull out beds.

Being so cold I brought extra coats and jackets for the little ones. I also brought a little cooler so i could travel with milk and other things for the baby.

I took my little baggie of medicines fo the kids tylenol, motrin, benadryl, dramimine etc.

we have the food for traveling worked out and that went over mostly well except the ever changing picky one year old. But were still working on that.

Pack water bottles. Kids get tired of juice and pop and it can actually dehydrate them. Cups of water while cheaper get spilled.

Little styrofoam cups are great to fill with crackers and chips and pass out.

Bring both salty and sweet treats they will get tired of just one type.

Make kids bring some things to entertain themselves on the trip.

The best part of the trip besides seeing the haunted prison was getting my edit finished. (Mental note, hotel is nice place to work on writing. As long as kids arent watching Tom and Jerry.)

I'm back.

My blog and I have a love hate relationship and most of the emotion is on my side.

I will honestly from here on out try my darndness to have a regular schedule. Honest.

Cold River by Liz Adair

I had the pleasure of reading a really great Romantic Suspense these last few weeks.

Here is the blurb:

Mandy Steenburg thinks her doctorate in education has prepared her to run any school district - until she tangles with the moonshine-making, coon-dog-owning denizens of a tiny district in Pacific Northwest timber country. She's determined to make a difference, but the local populace still looks to the former superintendent for leadership. When Mandy lands in the middle of an old feud and someone keeps trying to kill her, instinct tells her to run. And though she has to literally swim through perilous waters, she finds a reason to stay and chance the odds.

This was a great read. Full of suspense, rich in characters and descriptive in setting. Liz is a great writer and I will be reading more of her stuff now that we've been (sort of) introdouced. It was hard to put it down. Thanks Liz for a great read.

You can get the book HERE

Here is her WEBSITE

About the Author:

A native of New Mexico and mother of seven, Liz Adair lives in northwest Washington state with Derrill, her husband of 48 years.

A late bloomer, Liz published her first mystery (The Lodger) just as AARP started sending invitations to join. After writing three in the Spider Latham series, Liz moved into romantic suspense with The Mist of Quarry Harbor.

Liz took a break from suspense to write Counting the Cost, a novel based on family history. The book won the 2009 Whitney Award and was a finalist for the Willa Award and Arizona Publisher Association's Glyph Award.

Liz is back writing romantic suspense with Cold River and feels that's where she belongs. "I remember when I was a young mother with all those kids and a slender budget," she says. "I was so grateful for books that let me go places and meet people who carried on adult conversations That's what I want to write--cheap vacations."

Heeding advice given to writers not to quit their day job, Liz works as a forensic scheduler on schedule delay analyses. She also serves on LDStorymakers' Board of Directors, is a member of American Night Writers Association and the Skagit Valley Writers League, and chairs the annual Northwest Writers Retreat.

Book Review Heir to Power by Michele Poague

Sometimes I recieve a free book in exchange for an honest review. The way I recieve the work has no influence on my opinion.

The colony of Survin has been hidden for centuries, protecting an ancient religious artifact called the Healing Crystal from men who would steal or destroy it. Kairma, heir to the Crystal, is destined to mate with the handsome Naturi and become the leader of the reclusive colony, but she is too young to realize the peril soon to arrive. At sixteen, Kairma is too young to realize many things ....

Kairma would rather go spelunking with her brother and his best friend than study ancient medicine and religious laws, but the discovery of a tomb containing ancient artifacts leads Kairma to question her religion and the true nature of the Crystal. To further complicate Kairma's ascent, a childhood illness has left her resembling a nearby race of men both hated and feared by the people of Survin. Because of this, Kairma's younger sister Kinter, who is in love with Naturi, believes she is the rightful heir.

Disease and infertility have decimated Survin, but bigotry and religious laws forbid the introduction of new members so things heat up when a traveling archeologist stumbles upon the reclusive colony and introduces a powerful new weapon. Forced into a larger world, the Survinees discover they hold an object of unimaginable power, a power other men covet, a power that might save or forever damn the human race.


This was a big book at over 550 pages it was the longest I've read in a while. The author deals with an interesting subject, that of isolation of a peoples and what happens because of it. Regardless of the reasons. The copy was mostly clean making it an easy read. It is a typical epic fantasy and I am sure will delight many readers.

There were only a few problems, there were lots of characters and some had unpronouncable names and that slowed me down because I was second guessing myself trying to pronounce them in different ways. Also the author bounced from one head to another among those characters makeing me think "Who is this?" some of the time.

If you like fantasy this is the perfect book to pickup for those long cold winter. nights. Thank you Michele for the adventure.

You can get the book HERE

Michele's WEBSITE