The Next Big Thing blog Challenge

Ten Interview Questions for The Next Big Thing:

What is the working title of your book?  Imogene:  Innocense Lost

Where did the idea come from for the book?  I was looking at some creative writing prompt sites last Decmeber and came across this site and five of the pictures jumped out at me that just said - story, story, story - (the numbers of the picture are #10, #20, #23, #38, and #41, not necessarily in that order - but China came to mind when I saw the pictures and the doll basically said - kidnapped little girl and the search for her.

What genre does your book fall under?  This is a tough one.  I'm thinking maybe intrigue, suspense but not a mystery per se - because we know who kidnapped Imogene; we just have to figure out how to get her back to her family.  Perhaps it's a psychological thriller - I just don't really know what genre to put it in. 

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?  I've not thought that far ahead and I don't really follow any actors or actresses and the ones I do follow are too old to play this young family. 

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?  A young girl goes missing and the search is on; mother is unrelentless until she brings her home.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?  Probably self-published as I don't feel it is necessary to go through the angst of trying to get someone else to publish for me.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?  Ha.  I'm still working on the first draft.  I hope to participate in NaNo next month and totally write the story but it will be going through a revamping since I can't really get it to start in China but can get her mother to China after the fact.  There is a secret that will have to come out that helps get the mother there. 

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?  When I was describing this story to someone on the phone, they kind of said this sounds like one of those made for TV movies   So, I'm not really sure what other book to compare this to.

Who or What inspired you to write this book?  The pictures from the website as noted above.  I know there is a decent story here; so, now, the challenge is just to write the story. 

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?  We have kidnapping, search and rescue, and bringing a family together - what's can be better than that?  Only kidding.  I don't know what would pique my readers' interests. 

UPDATE:  10/28/2012 - I was supposed to post this a couple of weeks ago and forgot but I don't have anyone to tag, so I apologize to Susanne for posting late.  If any of my readers would like to participate, same questions and just let me in the comment that you tagged yourself so we can follow your blog and postings - E :)

Winners

If you are following Susanne Drazic's blog this month and leaving comments or have subscribed to her feed to get the updated postings, you know she posted three winners today and I was one of them. I get a zombie surprise package. What a way to start off the weekend. Congrats to the other winners too. If you haven't checked out Susanne's blog, drop on over and leave a comment on the zombie postings to be entered to win. She even says you can win more than once so the more comments you leave, the better your chance of winning a prize. I'm looking forward to more of her zombie postings. I think next year I'll have to do something for Halloween the whole month of October and have lots of giveaways. I'll collect all my prizes after Halloween this year when everything goes on sale. I may even do something starting next week for a couple of weeks - so stay tuned for more Halloween-y themed postings - E :)

This and That

Sales were low for ebooks again - no sales across the board, but I did sell two books at the GA COMO event and as posted previously made contact with four distributors who will hopefully get my books in schools. I've received a response from createspace regarding how they can acquire my books and am ready to send the information on. The next month or so maybe I'll see a huge influx in my sales. I did sell 19 bookworms to one of the reps from Rainbow Books (the bikini colored ones which look like the rainbow colors) and then sold 16 or 17 others with two people buying a chance on the red, white and blue afghan. My presentation went okay; I had 2 ladies show up and found out that possibly my books are being talked about in one of the schools in Cobb County Georgia, which needs further investigation tomorrow. I am still in need of young writers writing questions for my Wednesday weekly postings, so teachers send in your students' questions and I'll do my best to answer them. If you are a class or writing club participating in NaNo and would like an author visit, please drop me a line and let me know so I can schedule all the class visits. If you are into zombies or just want some fun stuff for the month of October, stop over on Susanne Drazic's blog and sign up for her email notifications so you know when a new posting is made and leave a comment on her postings to be entered for some zombie related prizes. You never know when the zombies will show up. I wish I had a cover for "Zombies Amuck" and had it up for sale to participate in Susanne's zombie extravaganza but at this point I don't so maybe next year; and by then, she may do ghosts or werewolves or vampires or some other Halloween-y theme. We just have to wait and see. Time to get to work as I have been away from the work since Wednesday morning - see you all in the postings - E :)

RAOK - Susanne Drazic Appreciated

Not too long ago, Susanne honored me with a Random Acts of Kindness blog posting, introducing me to her blog followers. Since then, I've been trying to think of a way to honor her for being a true follower of my blog. So without her knowledge, I'm featuring Susanne in this blog posting.

What I know about Susanne: She lives in Michigan. She is a writer of YA/MG/Tween stories but has yet to brag about any of her writing per se. She participates in NaNo (National Novel Writing Month) and has been a winner at least two years now. She is working her way towards publication. Susanne does book reviews and follows a good many writers' blogs and comments on said blogs. She has been pretty consistent commenting on my blog. We've even exchanged mailing addresses and have sent each other goodies (she was cleaning out her craft supplies and sent me a bunch of wiggly eyes for my bookworms).

So, what can I do to honor her? What should I give her as a gift of appreciation? I'm open to ideas. Maybe I'll print up a wonderful certificate and send that to her, but again, I'll consider other suggestions (all within reason, of course).

If you would like to learn a little more about Susanne and the folks she follows and who follow her, stop by her blog and read some of her featured guests or book reviews; check out some of the blog awards bestowed on her.

Susanne, I really appreciate you being a true follower and leaving comments on my blog. I hope this honor makes your day and that you smile big all the day through. See you all in the postings - E :)

The A-Z Challenge features me

I'm featured on Priscilla the Great's blog, Prissy Fit. She is featuring authors who fit the challenge from A to Z.

Some folks are featuring books that fit the challenge and some are going another way. If you want a fun way to follow the A-Z Challenge, stop over at Susanne Drazic's blog, Putting Words Down on Paper, and leave a comment. Susanne is a true follower and leaves comments all the time. I wish more folks would leave comments but I'll take what I can get for now.

There are many more folks participating in the challenge, so have fun and follow several of them for something new and different.

See you all in the postings - E :)

Reminders

If you live in the Carolinas or possibly even Georgia (not sure how far the viewing area reaches really), tune in to Channel 7 (or CBC) tomorrow morning for Faye Tollison's, author of To Tell The Truth, TV Debut with Jack Roper on "Your Carolina". I'll be watching and hope you do as well.

Tomorrow, Susanne Drazic will be posting a review of "The Tulip Kiss" on her blog, Putting Words Down on Paper. I'm looking forward to a review on one of my stories. Thank you, Susanne, for posting a review.

Saturday and Sunday, March 31 and April 1, my short story, "The Proposal" will go up for free for kindle only. This will be the only time this story is offered for free and there will be no more free kindle offers for any of the stories unless, of coursee, Amazon does a price match (if I do a free offering elsewhere) in the future. I have decided not to sign back up for the KDP select program, so come May (at least by the middle of May), my stories will be available everywhere again.

See you all in the postings - E :)