Guest Sarah Renee

Today's guest is Sarah Renee, a young author who has joined the SC Author Connection for events and such. Sarah Renee not only writes her own books but she illustrates and does some graphic design work too (reminds me of another young person, Heather). She has designed the banner for the SC Author Connection and it is pretty awesome. i can't wait to see it in person. I had a chance to catch up with Sarah Renee and ask her a few questions about her writing and here's what she had to say:

EE: Sarah, tell us a little bit about yourself, your likes, dislikes - who you are.
SR: My name is Sarah Renee, I'm currently fifteen years old, and I am the author of three fantasy adventure books called The Tiger Princess, Dash, and Hunted Home. I currently go to an online school called Connections Academy, and I have two sweet kitties named China and Frost. I am currently working on writing my eighth book in the Saderia Series, editing the fourth book, and learning a few basics about animation to create an animated book trailer for The Tiger Princess.. Some of the things I love the most are tigers, animals, reading, drawing, playing violin, learning new things, and of course, writing! My only real dislikes are bugs and bad weather.

EE: You are a young writer. How old were you when you started writing? What inspired you to write a series? Tell us a little bit about the series you are writing and how many books you plan to publish in the series?
SR: I had been writing for as long as I can remember. I finished my first novel, The Tiger Princess, at age 12 and later published it at age 13. When I came up with the idea for The Tiger Princess, I loved tigers and I had always been interested in royalty, so the two ideas sort of combined. Before I came up with the idea, I had written other stories, but when I began writing The Tiger Princess, I fell in love with the story and the characters. I grew so attached to the story that it motivated me to continue writing the next books in the series to continue Saderia's story and eventually publish it. A mysterious power Saderia learns about in The Tiger Princess also inspired me to continue writing more books in the series to unravel the mystery of her past and her ancestors.

The Saderia Series is a series of middle grade fantasy adventure books. The first book, The Tiger Princess, tells the story of a young tiger Princess named Saderia searching desperately for clues as to what happened to her royal parents, the King and Queen, after they mysteriously disappeared in a fire ten years ago. Living with her aunt and uncle who treat her like a 'prissy Princess' instead of the sassy tomboy she really is, Saderia tries to figure out who started the fire and why. On her path to discover the truth, she is helped by a dark lion named Dastarius that she is hesitant to trust. While she is searching for clues as to who started the fire, she accidentally stumbles onto an ancient secret of her royal ancestors and discovers a mysterious power hidden in her family for ages, one that has the power to change her life forever. The Tiger Princess has a lot of mystery and suspense as she starts finding more clues that build up to finally make her suspect some of the animals that are closest to her.

The second book, Dash, introduces a dark lion named Dash who is hiding a dark secret from Princess Saderia. He meets her when Saderia starts a new school, and although he at first tries to avoid her, they start to form a shaky, secretive friendship. Even though Dash tries to hide his dark past, Saderia starts to realize he might be hiding something from her. At the same time, a dark enemy from their past lurks somewhere inside the school, trying to break them apart. The third book, Hunted Home, describes the journey of a canine named Dingo who lives out in a harsh desert with a cruel pack of dingoes. Hated by his older brother, Bone, and the canines that control the pack, Dingo has to fight to survive. Meanwhile, a new enemy stalks Saderia's forest, making her realize that the only way to survive is to leave the forest forever. When Dingo discovers her lost in the desert, he has to decide which is more important--saving Saderia or his own survival.

The Tiger Princess, Dash, and Hunted Home are the first three books I have out in the series. I currently have seven books in the series written, and I am hoping to release my fourth book, Enchanted Home, sometime around March. I have planned for there to be fifteen books in the Saderia Series.

EE: What's your favorite genre to read? to write?
SR: My favorite genre to read and to write are fantasy adventure books with tons of suspense and a hint of mystery.

EE: What are your writing aspirations? aspirations in general?
SR: My writing aspirations are to finish writing all the books in my series within the next few years and release one book each year. My general aspirations are to eventually go to college and study to become a teacher or a lawyer.

(EE: Very commendable aspirations. keep at it and you will go far.)

EE: What's a typical day in your life like - do you have a set schedule or do you just play it by ear?
SR: I don't usually have a set schedule. I try to write every day for several hours and try to finish a certain amount of pages each day. Sometimes I work on drawing the cover art for my next books or the characters that are in my books or sometimes I take a break and read a book, go out for a bike ride, or play with my cats.

EE: If you could live anywhere, where would you live?
SR: If I could live anywhere, I would probably still choose to live where I am right now, but my second choice would probably be Canada, since my Mom went there a long time ago and really enjoyed it there, and because it snows!"

(EE: I think it's funny that both my guests this week said they would like to live in Canada - for different reasons and that I've got a French-Canadian background in my father and I've not been to Canada that I can remember.)

Sarah Renee, thank you so much for being my guest today and I can't wait to meet you in a couple of weeks.

AUTHOR'S BIO: Sarah Renee has loved writing from an early age. She has been writing short stories since the age of four, and at the age of ten, she came up with the idea for The Tiger Princess. She wrote the novel when she was twelve. She is fascinated with wild animals and the wild world outside her home, and has an obvious great love of tigers. She enjoys spending time with her cats, reading, drawing, and playing her violin when she is not writing. In her free time, she is constantly daydreaming about her many characters, creating new ones, and coming up with interesting adventure story ideas. She is fifteen years old. For more on Sarah Renee, her books and events, visit Sarah's website.

Guest Leslie Dubois

Today, my guest is Leslie Dubois. I first met Leslie under her other name, Sybil Nelson, via email. I met Sybil/Leslie at the Savannah Children's Book Festival in November. I caught up with Leslie in her busy life and asked her a few questions.

Leslie, thanks for being on my blog today. I must say I've really enjoyed your books so far (both as Sybil and Leslie and still have a few to read). I also apologize as I owe you a couple of book reviews (they are semi-drafted but not completed and I will work hard to get them completed and posted by the end of the week). I love the twists you put in your YA novels. Here are the questions I asked Leslie and her responses:

EE: Leslie, tell us a little bit about yourself, your likes, dislikes - who you are.
LD: Well, I’m a hard working mother of two who is also married and working on her PhD. I’m a mathematician but I also love to read and write and do so at every given opportunity. I also love Pop music which my husband finds completely embarrassing. But hey, listening to Pop music actually helps me write!

(EE: If your husband finds pop music embarrassing, what does he listen to? And I guess it's a good thing he tolerates you listening to whatever it is that helps you write because you are putting out some pretty awesome stories.)

EE: What's your favorite genre to read? to write?
LD: I’m a sucker for historical fiction. For some reason, I love reading about people from other centuries. My favorite genre to write, however, is Young Adult Romance. I think we can all remember a crush we had when we were teenagers and how it was the most important thing in the world and how it was so passionate. I think that kind of raw emotion is so beautiful. But I never write simple love stories. There is always some sort of twist in my books.

(EE: You hit that nail on the head - twists abound and I think that is what really keeps a reader interested.)

EE: What are your writing aspirations? aspirations in general?
LD: I’m hoping to be able to be a full time writer one day and be able to support myself and my family simply on royalties. That would be a dream come true. On a slightly higher scale of goals, I hope to become famous enough to be able to go on Dancing with the Stars!

EE: What's a typical day in your life like - do you have a set schedule or do you just play it by ear?
LD: I don’t have a set schedule outside of my class schedule, but I am a definite list maker. The first thing I do every day is make my To-Do list. Then I spend the rest of the day trying to scratch things off. Sadly, some days I end up scratching one thing off and adding two more. If I have a day where I get more than half the things on the list done, I consider it a success.

EE: You write under different names. How do you keep your identities separate and how do you manage to write totally different genres?
LD: Because I use different names for completely different genres, it’s pretty easy to keep them separate. I know immediately when I have an idea for a book whether it is going to be a Leslie or a Sybil book.

EE: How do you keep straight what you are working on at any given moment?
LD: Once again, I can tell by the voice of the characters and the subject matter whether it is a Leslie book or a Sybil book. I never get confused in that regard. The hard part is actually finding time to write down all the ideas I have for stories!

EE: What inspires you to write semi controversial stories as Leslie and fun, middle grade stories as Sybil?
LD: I wanted to keep my identities separate for just that reason. I didn’t want young middle school aged kids reading about topics that were above them. I use my pen name, Leslie, as a way to be a bit more edgy and take more chances than my Sybil brand name can do. I don’t think I set out to write controversial topics, I think the ideas just come to me and I can’t help but write it the way the characters want it. Several times I’ve wanted to change certain things in my book to make them more “acceptable” but it just didn’t feel right.

EE: If you could live anywhere, where would you live?
LD: Oddly enough, Canada. I have a slight obsession with that country. Especially Vancouver and Victoria. We’ve been there on vacation twice and I think it would be a great place to live.

(EE: Funny thing is my father's family is from Canada but in my life, I've never even visited the area. My father, of course, has been back several times, and my oldest son has even traveled with my parents to Maine (where my dad's family makes their home now) and to Canada but I have yet to go there; it's too cold for me - lol.)


Again, Leslie, thank you for being on my blog today and happy writing.

Leslie makes her home in Charleston, SC, along with her husband and two small children. She is also working on her PhD in biostatistics.

Leslie can be found on the following pages:

her website
her facebook page
her twitter page
her Amazon author page

This and That

Since the KDP reports for the week ending don't show up before I shut down, I'll have to do my this and that report on Sundays - lol. Not that I think it makes much difference to my readers - but just saying.

Anyway, For the week ending 02/25 - I had 3 sales of "Bride-and-Seek" in the USA and 1 sale of the same title in the UK. No other sales to report. Not stellar numbers but at least I have a few trickling in. I'd love to see more but time will tell. I think the biggest thing hurting me is the lack of reviews on my stories overall. So, if you are reading my blog and have downloaded any of my stories and would like to share your review of them, I'd really, really appreciate it.

On the JGDS side of things - the red/white/blue afghan is for all intents and purposes finished save four more rows on the border. I've gotten all the rows sewn together and have put the red border. One row plus 3 squares' worth on a short side for the second row of border took me almost 2 hours last night/early this morning and the remaining second row took me a bit of time but I also was juggling reading emails, answering plurks and whatever.

Work has been kicking my heiney but I think I'm finally back to getting in the groove. I hope.

Not much else new to report except I did start making some new bookworms and am preparing my presentation for the SCASL conference coming up March 14-16. I will presenting at 3:15 on March 15. More on that next week.

I will be featured on Darcia Helle's blog on March 8 and on Susanne Drazic's blog sometime over the next couple of months (reviews of my books).

Tomorrow my guest is Leslie Dubois, 1/3 of the SC Author Connection and Wednesday my guest will be Sarah Renee, another 1/3 of the SC Author Connection. We are sharing the cost of booths at several events over the course of the year including the SCASL conference in a couple of weeks. I can't wait to meet Sarah Renee as she is only 15. Stay tuned to learn more about these young ladies. See ya'll in the postings - E :)

Crocheted bookworms pattern

I posted the pictures of the latest colors on my plurk network which also goes to my FB page and my twitter account. I've had two comments on my FB page requesting the pattern to make these. Although I cannot take credit for this pattern and for the life of me cannot find it online, I'll just give you the instructions that I've memorized (after doing well over 100 or more of these cuties, I definitely have no need to use a pattern). This is a very easy and quick to make up pattern. There are only two stitches used (if you don't count the slip knot to start and the finish off stitch) and can be done in solid colors and varigated yarns. I love doing the varigated colors because it pretty much guarantees that no two worms come out the same.

SUPPLIES NEEDED:
Scrap yarn or if you are making a bunch for gifts - a 5 ounce skein will yield about 15 worms and 7 ounce skein will probably yield about 20 worms.
Hook (sized to your yarn - I use a G hook for mine)
Wiggly eyes

STITCHES USED:
Slip stitch
Chain
Double crochet (DC)

WHAT TO DO:
Chain 20.
2 DC in the 4th chain from hook
3 DC in each chain to the end.
Chain as many as you want the marker part to be (sized to the books you are using them for) and add 15 more chains.
2 DC in the 4th chain from the hook
3 DC in the next 9 chains.
Finish off.

Glue some wiggly eyes on the "head" part which is the bigger of the two twisty parts. Let dry and use to mark your place when reading.

Have fun with them - make them with whatever scrap yarn you have lying around or use varigated yarns to make some fun and unique worms.

E :)

New bookworm colors

As promised, here are the pictures of the new bookworm colors. They will go up on my websites soon but for now, the revealing of "Earthworm", "Cotton Candy" and Easter or spring bookworms:

The bookworms are $1.50 each plus shipping and if you order in bulk (20 or more, the cost is $1.25 each) - I'm trying to build up my cache so will be getting more yarn every trip to town, just to make sure I have a large collection of bookworms for in-person events and to sell on the websites. Thanks - E :)

BIGGER THAN THE BIBLE

Another witness to how well someone did by listing their book for free in the KDP select. It amazes me that I had very few downloads and still ended up in the top 20 by the end of the two free days I offered "Bride-and-Seek" for free. I just hope the momentum will pick up and folks will start downloading my stories - E :)

BIGGER THAN THE BIBLE

Shopping and New items

Yesterday was payday along with taxes coming back. I took the kids shopping for clothes. Daughter did well getting what she needed - 3 jean capris, 4 tops, a pair of shoes, socks, underwear; son not so well in my opinion since he spent $60 on shoes which he probably could have gotten for half the cost at Walmart, 2 pair of jeans, a jacket that he needed and it was a great price (Old Navy - was originally priced at $90 and marked down to $22 - so that is his only sound purchase of the day), a pack of V-necked T-shirts. Me I did okay - got a pair of shoes that were on sale but because I bought daughter's shoes and they were running a BOGO50$ sale in the store, I got my tennis shoes for half off the sale price; I know that sounds petty but for a pair of Keds originally markd at $35, down to $25, and then to get them for $12.50 in the end - I'm a happy camper. I did pick up a top at Ross's and two nightgowns. The things I didn't get included some pants and more tops but they will have to wait as I spent way too much on other things.

What I did pick up at Walmart, and color me sticker shocked, was some new yarn for bookworms to sell at my events. Why sticker shocked? just a month and a half ago, the yarn was $2.33/skein and yesterday it was $2.58/skein (yeah, I know that's only a 25 cent increase but it was still shocking but I guess everything is going up relative to the price of gas/gallon). If I had about $20 I would have bought a bunch of the Christmas yarn for the end of this year since that was a popular item in November. Maybe in a week or so I can run in there and pick up several skeins to have on hand for the next season.

One of the colors I did pick up was what I already make what I call my "autumn" bookworms because that color scheme did very well. One of the others I'd been looking at for a whle and been thinking of getting is called "Monet" and it's very Easter-y or maybe this will be my new "spring" one. I did pick up two more skeins (four in total) of yarn - one called "bonbon print" and it could be a "spring" color scheme as well except it reminds me of cotton candy sort of - so not sure what I'll call that one. The last one, I think, is going to be one of my new favorites. The skein coloring is called "woodsy", so it's a lot of browns, tans and earthy colors. That bookworm is being "earthworm" - lol. I did one of each of the three new colors last night and went to take pictures of them (without their eyes right now) and my camera battery was dead, so the pictures will have to wait until I get my camera charged up (and by that time, the worms will all have their eyes - lol).

I'm running out of topics to write about, so I'm now turning this back into a family blog - lol (not really - just in that kind of mood today). If you all have any suggestions of things you'd like me to post about, please don't hesitate to leave a comment -

Update on Imogene: I wrote about 2 pages on the story Sunday - set the timer and all - and had a line or two that I really liked: People were always telling Jacob he could Imogene's twin, and they could as they had similar features - the dark hair, the Asian complexion, the eyes, and they shared more than just the same parents. They also shared the same date of birth seven years apart.

Does it give you an idea of what the story is about? Not really. Does it come into play later in the story? Maybe. Imogene went missing at the age of 5 while her family was vacationing in Asia. It is now 10 years later, the approaching 15th birthday; the few months before passports for children were individualized, and her mother, Sarah Beth is making the final quest to find her daughter to bring her home. A lot can happen in ten years and a lot did happen to Imogene, which I hope to bring out in the story as it develops. After writing what little I did Sunday afternoon, I told my editor that this story may be written piecemeal and pieced together to make it a novel (or at least novella length) as I have all these disjointed scenes floating around in my head that I know I need to sit down and write but there are no flowing ideas to move the story from point A to point B. Mini sections that somehow have to have some filler to make it a story.

What about my readers out there? Have you ever written a story in a disjointed manner (one scene/section at a time) and then tried to piece the story together in an orderly fashion? Let me know - it will be interesting to compare notes - E :)

WWYWWQ #5

Today's question comes from Mr. Hughes' student, L.M.

Question: Mrs. E, is it okay to make up words in your story?
(explained that her characters are calling other characters names and they were like combinations of words or jumbled words).

Answer: Absolutely. This is your story and you can make up words, especially if you are writing sci-fi or fantasy.

But be careful not to overload your story with made up words as your reader will get frustrated and stop reading because they can't pronounce the words in their head. So, yes do make up words for your story but limit the amount of made up words you are using.

In one of my stories, I didn't make up words but have used some foreign phrases (I know, not the same as making up words) since my story is set in France, but my readers shouldn't have a problem figuring out what the meaning of the phrases are based on content and they are pretty common phrases - Je'taime (I love you) and things like terms of endearment, Mon Cherie, ma cherie and a few other fitting phrases in the story.

Thanks for the question, L.M. and keep on writing - Mrs. E ;)

Writers On The Move: Designing Customized Facebook Fan Pages Webinar

The next Writers on the Move workshop - I can't attend but if any of my readers are interested, please sign up. See you all in the postings - E :)

Writers On The Move: Designing Customized Facebook Fan Pages Webinar: Writers on the Move took a workshop break in February, but we have a great webinar scheduled for March 12th. Due to popular demand, Maggie B...

What to do with your books (if not self-published and are part of your package)

Previously, I talked about a chapter from the "Self Publishing Checklist" book that I had requested just for ending up on website which had an ad for the book as a freebie.

Obviously, this book is geared toward folks who use Bookstand Publishing as their publisher. In the paperwork that was included with the book, the cost to self publish includes 48 copies of your book. So there is a chapter titled "Promoting Your Book What Do I Do with 48 Books?" and so I thought I would share what they recommend doing with these books as a followup on the marketing plan postings.

For me, I don't have 48 books lying around to use for promotion but that is my choice. I order books when I can to keep on hand for any upcoming events. The most I've had of any one title at a time was 50 but technically there were some copies already sold from that 50 and I had to purchase those from my publisher at a very high cost to me. I'm trying to keep about 15 to 25 of each title on hand at any given time which all depends on the events coming up and the title itself. I don't have any of my Passport Across America book on hand but will probably order a few for the SCASL coming in March, just to have a few available. I will only keep 5 or less of this title on hand. "Train of Clues" will be used as a giveaway and what I read from at school visits and other events where a reading is required. The JGDS state books and Finally Home are slowly building to have a nice supply available. What I do, when I can, is order 5 or so copies of several titles at once.

So if I weren't paying for my 48 copies of books (okay, yes I'd have paid for those copies on the publishing end by way of whatever the cost of the package was) and needed ways to promote my books, this is what "The Self Publishing Checklist" suggests:

15 copies - for family and friends in exchange for reviews

13 copies - to send out for reviews to various places
(bookreview.com, midwestbookreview.com, lightwordreviews.com and oncewritten.com; local newspapers w/press release, targeted magazines with press release; targeted websites with press release)

5 copies - distribution to local bookstores or gift shops (on a consignment basis)

15 copies - for sales at signings or speaking engagements

I've not sent books to the review sites and this may be my next project, after the fact of course - since the books are already published and have sold a few copies.


Personally, I'd rather my family and friends purchase a copy and when the expense of book promotion is all on your shoulders, you tend to be very picky about who gets free copies, because either way you have to pay for those copies some how.

Hope you all have many reviews on your books and that in turn is bringing the sales to you. Keep on writing and see you all in the postings. Until next time - E :)

This and That

It's Saturday night again and I'm making my reports. Figured I needed to get this posting up before we lose power as my internet is flaking in and out.

You saw my 1st day KDP select posting - by the end of the 48 hours, I had a total of 361 downloads, which included 52 from the UK and 1 from Denmark as well as 1 sale of "The Proposal" in the USA.

Since the freebies have gone back to regular price, I have picked up 2 or 3 sales of "Bride-and-Seek" and no other sales.

I think I had 2 sales already of "Bride-and-Seek" so I had been subtracting those from the total numbers. I'll know for sure next week when i can check the prior 6-weeks sales.

Last night I posted on when my other stories will go up for free. The only story I'm not putting in the KDP program, but it is still available on kindle, is Finally Home. If sales pick up throughout the year on the kindle for that story, I may consider putting it in the program when I'm about to release my next novel, Imogene: Innocense Lost.

I've also been thinking about the titles of my stories and wondering if the titles have anything to do with the lack of sales. I can't really say it is the covers because I really do think my covers are pretty awesome and that Heather does a great job. So I'll put it out there to my readers, and please leave a comment here so I know you are actually reading my blog, do you think my titles are appropriate to the story? If not, what would you title "The Proposal", "The Tulip Kiss" and "Bride-and-Seek" or even Finally Home?

I try to find appropriate titles for all my stories and usually don't even write my stories to titles. Case in point, Imogene's story is taking shape and the title keeps tumbling around like it's not the right one and who knows, when I'm through writing it and start the editing process, the title may change. I'll leave that up to my editor to decide whether or not it should be left as is or changed, although at this point, I'm not really sure what new title I could give it. I'm not even sure I can give a brief description of the story yet. This will all take place as the story develops.

I think that is everything I have to report - internet is flakng due to weather so I'll sign off for now and see you all lin the postings - E :)

WARNING - MCBUB online

Here is a cautionary tale for all you folks who order anything from a company online. DO NOT ORDER ANYTHING FROM MCBUB - I ordered two tablets in November and received them a few days before Christmas. Daughter and I opened the package and started checking out the tablets to see if we could get my Square app to download on the tablet (that was the whole reason for ordering the tablet in the first place, it is android based and should have been compatible with the app). Daughter's tablet turned on and worked well for the most part. Mine did not - showed a green light like it was on but the screen never would come on. I tried charging it and when I had it on the charger, the light was red and then went to blue but still no screen - couldn't see anything but black. After a couple of hours trying to get it to work, I gave up. I was instructed to send it back. (according to their website, you have three days to return a faulty item.) I did get the instructions and shipping address and whatever was needed to send the package back (it only took a day to get the info in email). Package was received on December 20th; return info received on the 21st and printed out return form and address immediately; went to the post office on December 22(payday for me) to send the package. They told me that it should take about 2 or 3 weeks for the company to receive the package, had to send it air mail ($15) and I did not put a signed receipt or insurance or anything on the package (would have cost me a bunch more than I could afford for all that). I filled out the customs form as instructed, wrapped the package in extremely high amounts of bubble wrap and the post office worker liked the package I had received it in originally so we put my bubble wrapped pcakge inside the original bubble wrapped package and sealed it up and put the label on the package. It left my town that afternoon. Grant it a couple of days before the Christmas Holiday, I knew to give it a couple of days to get to its destination of wherever the United States Customs was.

About three weeks after sending the package, I hadn't heard anything so emailed the company trying to find out where my refund was. They informed me they had not received the package in their warehouse at the time. Fine, I waited another week and sent another email. I was informed to track it and find out where it was held up on my end - like it really would be hung up for 3 weeks on my end especially when I was told it had to be returned within 3 days in order to receive my refund.

So, I did track it from the customs form number and it showed that my package went through the usual stops before getting to customs in Jamaica, NY and was sent out on the 28th of December from customs. I sent the information to the company and got an email back saying it still was not in China - now near the end of January (over 3-1/2 weeks from leaving NY) or in their warehouse and had not been checked in their computer system. Of course that email had to sit and wait for a response since it was the Chinese New Year and they take a whole week off for their New Year - literally - the automated response said they closed their offices for a whole week.

So I resent that email the week after just to make sure they had gotten the first email (we are now talking about the very end of January/first part of February). Again, I was told they had not received the package and that as soon as they did I would receive my refund. Every week I've sent an email asking where my refund is. I keep explaining to them that once it leaves the United States customs there is no way to track it on my end. They need to go to their customs workers and find the stupid package. Each week I get the same response - it is not in our warehouse, nor has it been checked into our database or it's still in NY - it is almost 7-1/2 weeks since it actually left NY and made its trek overseas. So where is my $84 refund? - Still not in my account as it should be. Where is my package? no telling.

All I can say is if you are thinking of ordering anything from McBub think twice just in case you have to return it for a refund. I will never order anything from an overseas company again especially now with this headache of waiting for them to receive a returned package and holding up my money. Honestly, I believe it's there but they keep saying it's not so they don't have to refund my money. I've no other course of action but to blacklist the company for poor business dealings.

WARNING - DO NOT ORDER ANYTHING FROM MCBUB ONLINE. If you do, expect poor materials and poor business dealings.

Ebook descriptions and freebies calendar

I've decided to take all my short stories and put them in the KDP select program to see if I can generate some sales for all my stories. I will leave Finally Home available for Nook and through smashwords (available for all ereaders and PCs) but have just put "The Proposal" and "The Tulip Kiss" in the KDP select program. What this means is that I'm going to run some freebie days for each of the stories and see what I can generate interest wise. All these stories have placed in various contests or been selected for anthology inclusion, so I don't understand why the stories really aren't selling at 99 cents.

Remember that when these stories are offered for free on amazon, you don't need an actual kindle to download them; you can download the free kindle app for your phone, tablet, computer, et cetera. This will allow you to download the stories for free during the time they are offered for free or purchase them when they are regular price.

Here's the setup on the stories:

"Bride-and-Seek" was a selected piece in the SC Writers Workshop anthology, the Petigru Review, which was published for the annual conference in 2008. The selection process is blind and not everyone who submitted a piece gets selected. This story was written as a challenge back a few years ago when my friend sent me a "Haunted Realms" Calendar and Covington Manor was one of the featured places (all the haunted places are based in the UK and overseas). The story goes that the Lord of Covington Manor and his new bride had come back to the manor (they got married around Christmastime or on Christmas) and the bride had the wedding party engage in a game of hide-and-seek. She went off to hide and they all looked for her but no one found her. Rumors were said that she ran away. The groom continued his search for her but to no avail and finally gave into his broken heart, dying some months or years later, still searching for her. It is said that some years after his death a servant was cleaning the manor either to put it for sale or spring cleaning or whatever and stumbled upon a locked trunk in the attic. When he opened the trunk, he found the remains of a woman in a wedding dress. This is presumed to be the bride who went missing all those years ago. I've taken that description of what supposedly happened and rewrote the story with the same ending. I'm listing this story as a paranormal romance (love story with a ghostly twist to it) "Bride-and-Seek" is currently 99 cents and is available for kindle download only. It was just offered as a Valentine's Day freebie with a resultant 360 (maybe 361) downloads over the 48-hour period. It will be "free" again in March and April.

"The Tulip Kiss" is a first place winner in Echelon Press's fast and frigid themed contest (January 2007). We were given the theme frigid for January and had to write a short story based on the theme. My award was ebook publication for six months as the first place winner. The cover depicts a winter scene on an icy, back road where tragedy has just struck a young couple. The tulips come in from my husband's family being dutch and at one point, the Elderings were known for their tulips. This is a love story with a ghostly twist. "The Tulip Kiss" is currently 99 cents and will be offered for free the end of February, a couple of days in March and again in May.

"The Proposal" is the second place winner in Armchair Interviews April Fools Day contest. The basis for this story was that we were given a list of eight words and to incorporate several of them into the story and had to write a humorous romance short story. To date, other than the current free downloads on "Bride-and-Seek", "The Proposal" has been one of my bestselling stories. Even during my freebie days for "Bride-and-Seek", I gained 1 or 2 downloads of this story. I also had it on Smashwords and Nook but took it off both those sites and listed exclusively on kindle this week. "The Proposal" is currently 99 cents and will be run for free the end of March/first part of April as I want to see how well a "holiday" themed story does when it is offered for free during said "holiday" (yes, I know that April Fools Day is not a holiday but it's a fun-filled, practical joke day and that's exactly what you will find in "The Proposal").

"Butterfly Halves" (coming soon) will be added to the calendar once it is published. This story is a runner up in Echelon Press's fast and fanciful themed contest (March 2007) and is about two sisters who both want a butterfly necklace but when they fight over the necklace and it breaks, they find themselves in a different dimension in the future in their lives as they have dreamed of them being. This was a bit whimsical and fun to write. Once it is published, it will be listed for 99 cents and I'll determine free days at a later time.

I have two more stories, "Zombies Amuck" (a second place winning story for a local writing group) and "La Cave" (or "The Cellar" - still am undecided whether to list it in the French title or the English title - but will have to decide when Heather tells me yes she will do a cover for it and whichever she chooses for the cover will be what I go with). More on these two stories when it gets closer time to publishing them (if I get them published - lol). They will both sell for 99 cents when they are published.

Here is the calendar of upcoming free days for the stories:

February 29/March 1 - "The Tulip Kiss"
March 21 - "Bride-and-Seek"
March 21/March 22 - "The Tulip Kiss"
March 31/April 2 - "The Proposal"
April 25/April 26 - "Bride-and-Seek"
May 16 - "The Tulip Kiss"


I've only scheduled 3 days for "The Proposal" for now but will play that by ear as to when the next two free days will be scheduled.

I hope you all enjoy my stories and will tell all your friends and promote the free days as much as you can. I appreciate your support and following. Still looking for followers to receive a free ebook version of my YA paranormal mystery, Finally Home. When I reach 150 followers on this blog, you will be contacted with a coupon code for you to download the story. Please pass the word.

Also, the red/white/blue afghan drawing is still opened. The chances are only $1.50 per one chance or you can purchase 10 for $12 (that's a $3 savings over the individual chance). The drawing will be December 1 with the afghan being mailed out around the 7th of December. For more details on the drawing and purchase links, visit either The JGDS website or my main website and check the events pages.

My work in progress, Imogene: Innocense Lost is still that - a work in progress but there are some things in my head about the story. I hope to publish this story sometime at the beginning of 2013. It will be available in print as an ebook (all places - kindle, smashwords and nook). I need to really sit down and work on it so that I will be ready to publish next year. See you all in the postings - E :)

Book Review Friday - Guardian of Eden by Leslie Dubois

I'll continue my review of Leslie's books leading up to her guest appearance on the 27th. Guardian of Eden is very poignant and dramatic to say the least. I emailed Leslie after reading it and all I could say was WOW to her - lol.

Write From the Heart: SPEAK WITH YOUR VOICE

Another good article on voice and style - this should help the WWYWWQ #4 some too - Mrs. E :)

Write From the Heart: SPEAK WITH YOUR VOICE: What distinguishes one's writing from someone else's writing? Voice.  One of the most important things you can give your story is your voice...

Promoting Marilyn Levinson

I just updated two of my out-of-print children's books and put them up on Kindle. RUFUS AND MAGIC RUN AMOK was an International Reading Association-Children's Book Council Children's Choice. Fourth-grader Rufus Breckenridge discovers he has magical powers like the women in his family, but keeps it a secret. Once his mother learns he's an "Empowered One," she'll make him take lessons so he can use his powers to do good deeds. Where's the fun in that? Suddenly Rufus is no longer afraid of Big Douggie. He can perform all sorts of tricks. His powers grow stronger and stronger and get him into more and more trouble. Soon his magic is out of control.

NO BOYS ALLOWED was in print for eighteen years, and has been translated into Swedish and Dutch. Eleven-year-old Cassie Landouer is devastated when her father divorces her mother to marry a young lawyer and moves out of state. She handles her pain by boycotting all the males in her life, including her best friend, Bobby. Then Uncle Harry moves in and she can't very well ignore him. Even worse, he discovers her secret. What's a girl to do?

RUFUS AND MAGIC RUN AMOK is $2.99 on Kindle. You can download it for free on February 16 and 17th. NO BOYS ALLOWED is $3.99 and can be found here. Both will soon be available in paperback.

AUTHOR BIO: Marilyn Levinson is a former Spanish teacher and the author of several books for children and young adults. Her first, AND DON'T BRING JEREMY, was a nominee for six state awards. NO BOYS ALLOWED has sold over 200,000 copies.

More recently, Marilyn has been writing mysteries for adults. Suspense Magazine awarded A MURDERER AMONG US a Best Indie of 2011. The book has been featured on the Five Star Books site these last three months. The sequel, MURDER IN THE AIR, will be out later this month. Her ghost mystery, GIVING UP THE GHOST, is coming out in April with Uncial Press.

Marilyn is a member of The Authors Guild, RWA, The Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime and the Guppies. She co-founded and is President of the Long Island chapter of Sisters in Crime.

Writers On The Move: "The Difference between Style and Voice," by Mayra...

This is an excellent answer to the question I tried to answer from a student in Mr. Hughes' class last week. For the question and my answer see my posting WWYWWQ #4 - and then refer back to this explanation of style and voice to help you figure it out - Thank you, Mayra for showing the difference between the two and help me answer the question correctly - Mrs. E :)


Writers On The Move: "The Difference between Style and Voice," by Mayra...: What is the difference between style and voice? Style is the particular manner of writing individual to an author, the unique way an autho...

Day 1 of "Bride-and-Seek" freebie download

Here are the results of day 1, February 14, for my story "Bride-and-Seek" being free to all kindle users (this includes those who don't have a kindle but do have a kindle app either on an ipad, iphone, or even your computer).

Yesterday was my first freebie day for "Bride-and-Seek". When I got to checking at about 8:15 AM yesterday morning, I had 30 something downloads and was ranked at the bestsellers ranking of #41 in the ghost stories category. Throughout the day, the rankings dropped (good thing) and by 3 PM, I had made it to the #9 bestselling spot in ghost stories. This is really amazing considering I had only had about 135 downloads (USA) since the book went up for free. I hovered at the #9 spot in freebie ghost stories throughout the rest of the evening/night - jumping up to #10 one time and then back to #9 the rest of the time I checked my stats and downloads. At the end of the day, when last checked for me at 11 PM, I was still at #9 bestselling freebie ghost stories but had 237 downloads and picked up 22 from the UK which I didn't really gain those UK downloads until late in the day. So from 3 PM to 11 PM, I picked up roughly 100 downloads but remained at the same spot on the bestsellers top 100 freebie ghost stories list.

This morning, the second day of my freebie promotion, when checked at roughly 8 AM, I had only gained about 30 downloads in the US from the night before up to 272 US downloads, and only 6 UK downloads up to 28, but I also picked up one download from Denmark. This put "Bride-and-Seek" at the #7 bestsellers freebie ghost stories list. And the last check at about 11:15 AM was 277 USA downloads, 37 UK downloads and 1 Denmark downloads, which put back to the #9 spot on the bestsellers list. (the final results will be posted tomorrow night but there will be a short posting at the end of my day tonight to show where I ended up, at least on the east coast time zone when I get to posting it; and my sales and downloads will also be posted in Saturday's posting, This and That).

I'm pleased and disappointed but also have realised that when looking at other's who have reported their kindle downloads during free promotions really have no comparison. One person I know who ran her free days the middle of January posted something like 5,000 downloads but then again, her book is a suspense or mystery or thriller where as mine is a ghostly romance story - way different stories. My other friend who did three days of freebie downloads last week, Faye Tollison, had over 1700 downloads over the course of three days but then again, her book, To Tell The Truth, is a romantic suspense and mine is a ghostly romance story - big difference in genres. I think I'm a little disappointed in the just barely over 300 downloads on my story more than anything but I'm also happy that I'm still in the top 10 (that was my original goal to be there at the end of the two days, not expecting to be there at the end of the first day).

So here is what I'm thinking of doing, even though my story "The Proposal" is doing well on smashwords or has done well on smashwords, I'm thinking of unpublishing it from Nook and smashwords and listing it in the KDP program and run it for free the day before and after and including April 1 - forthree days basically - since it is an April Fools Day story and see how a humorous romance does compared to a ghostly romance.

Do I think the promotion is working? In a way yes, because I did pick up a sale on another story, "The Proposal" in addition to the downloads. Do I think I could have done better, at this point I wish I had done better with the number of downloads, but overall I can't complain as there are folks looking at my books and I'm in the top 10 bestsellers free downloads (at the moment) and that was my ultimate goal. Do I think this program is for everyone? Hard to say right now as I don't have enough experience with the program and I've only seen stats on other stories that aren't even similar to mine, and we all know comparing apples and oranges just doesn't work; other than the similarity that they are both fruits - lol.

If you are thnking of self-pubbing and using the KDP select program to promote your books, I would suggest do it on a trial basis - nothing says you have to sign back up for another 90 days after the original; but if you are doing well enough to take away a good portion of the downloads and the money that is available, then definitely continue in the program. Each author's results will depend on a lot of variances - the type of story they have, the promotion they do, and of course name recognition (I'm still building mine). I think it is helpful being on the top 10 list, if even for a day or two because in the end, it is exposure that we are looking for.

If you have downloaded any of my stories and haven't done so yet, I'd really appreciate it if you did a short review for them. This helps folks in deciding whether or not to spend any money on a story and helps the rankings. I know I won't be in the #1 spot but I can get closer by having reviews. This is very much appreciated by every author. - E :)

WWYWWQ #4

This week, I sought out one of the classes I've worked with on Skype to see if they might have some questions for me to post on my WWYWWQ. Ms. Jurkowski has been very kind to send me a list of class questions. I will post several of the questions at the same time since they are basically the same question but phrased slightly different.

I would like to address one question on its own first, since it was already answered.

K.B. asks - What do you do when you get stuck in the middle of a story?

The simple answer is walk away. The more complicated answer is to do another writing activity that takes you out of the story but still keeps you writing; do some random writing - have someone give you a random word and write a paragraph or page and hope that maybe that will spark something in your story. Sometimes, the only thing you can do is totally scrap the story and start something different. This really happens more often than we authors want to admit. (I've personally started many short stories that I've never finished. At the time I've started the story, I felt it had merit or that it would be a good story, but would get less than a fourth of the way into the story and decide that it wasn't really happening - and this can happen due to lack of facts or evidence to back up your story (if based on a historical event - I started a Civil War story based on something my grandmother "confessed" on her deathbed, but after retelling the story to several people, the conclusion I had to come to was that I couldn't really research it nor could I verify what she said since my grandmother wasn't born until 1898 - yep over 30 years after the end of the Civil War, and what she was telling was something that had been passed on to her from her mother or women related to her who were alive during the Civil War; so basically I have several versions of the story started but haven't really taken them any further. I have a small collection of said stories, so if you really get stuck in the middle of a story and feel that it can't continue, it's okay; you can start a new story and work on that. You might come back to the first story and sometimes you may never come back to it; just save all those started stories because you never know when you may take parts of what you've already written and turn out something totally awesome.)

Now for the really similar questions:

R.P. asks - What do you do when you are writing an new story and you can't get it out of your head onto the paper?

E.N. asks - What do you do if you don't know what story to write?

A.M. asks - How do you get ideas for how to write a book?

K.L. asks - How do you think what to write about?

A.P. asks - What should I write for my next story?

G.V. asks - How do you get your ideas?

T.F. asks - How do you think when you write?

N.M. asks - How do you plan your writing? as does D.J.

As Mrs. Jurkowski pointed out, she felt that all of the students were struggling to come up with ideas for their stories for the Lunchtime Writing Club.

Okay kiddos, here is the simple answer - Ideas for your stories are all around you. Just keep your mind and eyes opened and you will see you have lots of stories to write. I can't tell you what to write about but keep those little notebooks handy and everytime something catches your interest, jot it down and viola, you have an idea for a story. Those little jots are to remind you of possible stories, and remember, they don't always lead to a story. A lot of what happens in our everyday lives really makes good fodder for our stories. We take something simple and turn it into a story, and sometimes we turn several of those small ideas into one story. So don't get discouraged and keep jotting little reminders and keep on writing. If one doesn't turn into a story, something else will -

Thanks for your questions; keep writing and who knows - one of these days, you may make it with your stories - Mrs. E :)

PS - If I've left anyone out with a similar question to the ones above, I apologize and your initials will be added to a future posting. Mrs. E :)

It's here - "Bride-and-Seek" free days

Today starts the free download days for "Bride-and-Seek" (you can pick it p here). You have through the end of day Wednesday to snatch up this book based on the legend of Covington Manor in the UK (newly married couple, come back to the Manor for wedding festivities; she wants to play a game of hide-and-seek; she hides and no one can find her; he dies of a broken heart and years later she is found in a locked trunk in the attic).

"Bride-and-Seek" is a twist - a love story that still ends in the same tragedy but different characters.

While you are checking out the story for free, take a look at my other downloads and see what might interest you. If you like romantic ghost stories, "The Tulip Kiss" is another tragic story of love at its peak with everything taken away in a flash. If you like humorous romance, then "The Proposal" will have you laughing and feeling sorry for Stella on her birthday which is riddled with practical jokes at a time when she thinks her man is being the most serious of all. Finally Home, my YA novel about Kelly trying to figure out why the house across the street is so important to her and her family, is also available. This novel is being compared to Nancy Drew mysteries and that it reminded the reader of the trouble Nancy Drew got into. The paranormal in this story is help from the grave by way of a mirror.

All my other books are available in print (JGDS state mystery series) with Finally Home also being in print.

Still available any of the state stories and everything else except "Bride-and-Seek" as a freebie offer in exchange for a review on any of the stories, as well as your choice of Finally Home or the two short stories "The Tulip Kiss"/"The Proposal" for following and reading this blog when I reach 150 followers.

Within the next month, I should have one more short story going up, "Butterfly Halves", a YA fantasy story which will only be available as a download for 99 cents and I may put that one in the program and offer some free days shortly after it goes up but I will have to play that by ear when I have the cover. Two more short stories are awaiting input from Heather as far as if she wants to take me on for more covers and then there is Imogene: Innocense Lost waiting to be written, so there will be more stories coming out but the state stories really do need to come first and foremost since I'm targeting teachers and librarians and homeschoolers now. Keep watching out for more stories and special deals. See you all in the postings - E :)