Announcing The Snowy Reading Bloghop

Do you want to get your great story in front of other writers and readers?
Now is  your chance.

Next week we'll be hosting the Snowy Reading Blog hop. A post will go up on Thursday announcing the start of the blog hop and the prizes up for offer. It will run for one week, from Thursday 6th - Thursday 13th of December.

We'll be providing a list of interview questions for your main character to answer. Please choose one main character to interview from one of your books. You will post the interview on your blog together with a short blurb, buy links and the Snowy Reading Button during the duration of the Snowy Reading Blog Hop. You can put your post up on the 6th, 7th, 8th and so on. 

Here's the questions to give you time to organize your blog post.


Hi ___ and welcome to the Snowy Reading Blog hop. We're so excited to have you here today. 

1. Tell us a little about yourself.
2. Do you enjoy or dislike winter? Tell us why. 
3. What would you do on a date (or with close friends) on a snowy evening?
4. When it's cold and dreary outside, what makes you laugh out loud?
5.  If you were sitting around a fire, playing truth or dare, what would you choose and why?
6. Tell us about a winter memory from your childhood? 
7. What is the most creative gift you would put under the tree? 
8. Would you start a snowball fight? 
9. Tell us about your favourite winter movie or book?
10. How do you celebrate the holidays? Be it Christmas or Hannaukah or the Winter Solstice.

The only rule of entering the blog hop is that you have to hop around to at least three other blogs and comment on their post. There will be some prizes for entering, including one month of free publicity coaching with Tina-Sue Chamberlain, details will be in the post next week. Authors are also encouraged to give-a-way prizes on their own blog to readers. Please have your posts up on December 6th. 

*Disclaimer. This blog hop is open to any genre, some blogs may contain explicit content.   

What are you waiting for, Sign upon the Linky List now!

The Negativity Curve

And it's Wednesday again, so ya get a little Liz on Hump Day.

MY NEW RELEASE COMING DECEMBER 30---win an ARC Copy here



Today I just want to share a milestone thingie with you guys. We all remember those.
The first:
submission
rejection (times 10 or so)
acceptance
editing experience
Really Bad editing experience
cover art
cover art you luuuuv
cover art you hate but can't change
release day (woo hoo woo hoo woo hoo woo...hey, whaddaya mean nobody bought my book?)
blog tour (oh god not again)
blog interview (yay me! um....why are there no comments?)
review
stellar review
meh review
really awful review
blog notification of "copyrighted material usage"
smackdown from large National Organization about using Their Word on your cover (Realtor -- tm)

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Yeah.

So, I've gone through these stages about 15 times now in the last 20 months (well excepting the blog notification thing. I learned my lesson there, trust me).  And have flown Under The Radar as they say for the first about 14 months or so, just continuing to write (you know, 'cause I love it so much), submit, edit, get cover art, promote, promote, promote and read (or not) various scattered reviews of my books.

However, I have to add a new first for me: My first moment that I say "I think I don't need to know about it every single time my author name is mentioned online."

You see, I'm a marketing professional first. The writing thing came late to me. My first short story was published in September of 2010. So one of the ways I track my "reach" as an author is to fire up one of the many search services you can use that scours the internet for your name or any number of sequences of words related to your books or your genre. I narrowed this even further by adding something called "Social Oomph" to my daily check in schedule. This service will track all sorts of words and phrases (and your name separate from your twitter handle) on Twitter. Useful, no?

Yes.
Well, until you reach a certain point, that I apparently have at least on a small scale relative to the New York Times famous authors out there.

The critical mass of people reading my various series and stand alone books has grown so much since June this year (when the 4th Stewart Realty book released and I attended my first "Rom Con") it's been a whirlwind of answering facebook messages, managing a new private Liz Facebook fan group, and the usual round of blogging, blog touring, blog interviewing and tweeting. Along the way, I have picked up a few folks who are not fond of my books, my characters or my style. No problem. I have authors I read once and think "Hmmm, no thanks" and don't pick them up again. I value opinions politely rendered and reviews well written and edited that tell me something useful about my books, or even teach me something I should learn about my craft.

But because of my efforts and the efforts of my publisher's publicist I am seriously Out There. I mean, it's good. I want it. But I'm learning a lesson that many others have before me. Not only will you NOT Please Everyone, you will downright infuriate and make some readers bloody well foam at the mouth. That's cool. I do the same in my beer life and it's no skin off my nose really.  And I fully understand the bulk of it for what it is.

However, the lesson I am taking from it is NOT "now go back and write something that will please everybody" but more like "turn off the Twitter searches and even the Google alerts because sometimes, it's better not to know what people are saying about you."

Carry on writers! And Happy reading to you all
Liz

Health Update

No doubt some of you have noticed my absence from the blog as of late.  I've had health issues.

If all my nurses and doctors could look like the picture I’d find more reasons than just a fluttering heart to go into the hospital!

You may have seen my posts over the previous few weeks.  I had to go into the Emergency Room for heart trouble October 11th.  I spent the entire day in the ER basically and came home to rest.  Then promised I’d take the entire weekend off.  I had no choice.  It was pretty bad this time around and next time I’ll go in sooner.  Spending 14+ hours in Afib is NOT fun.

But this week I have a neurologists appointment (today actually) and I see my cardiologist on the 24th.  For the record this is only the first trip to the ER this year.  Last year I was in twice, once for my heart and another time for nerve issues.

The second trip occurred the day before Thanksgiving  when I blacked out at Mission Pipe and woke up in the ambulance with the understanding I was working on an ulcer...

Writers in general aren’t healthy people.  It’s not that we don’t try, many of us do.  It’s just that sometimes shit gets in the way.  Overworking, stress, emotional issues, living issues, and for a select few, abuse issues (chemical) cause problems but still we persevere to put out the books you’ve come to love and enjoy.
This is NOT an easy industry and if I COULD do something else it wouldn’t help.  I’d be in music, HA!
At any rate, I've finished  Saint in Sinner's Eyes and my agent, Saritza assures me that it’ll only take a little more work to get Burning for Derrick where she wants it and then we can start pushing it to publishers and editors.  She’s pretty pleased with it and that  makes me feel really damn good.

The routine an author must establish gets hectic after awhile and change becomes a necessity when the body starts screaming stop. The problem is that  in the mind, the mind only sees the  need to put out the words, and this is regardless of genre.

One of my acquaintances  just co-wrote her first book with a well known and up and coming author.  She and I started talking recently and she said to me "I get it.  Wow, my hat's off to you authors who do this full time."

I thanked her and told her it'd only get harder but the love of putting out stories that make you feel is why we do this.

Btw that risque picture is my way of pushing boundaries on today's post.  Yeah, I'm that worn out.

Cover Reveal; Hot Down Under #2

COVER  REVEAL :  Hot-Down Under

                                When it’s hot, down under, it’s hot.

Next week, summer will begin its strangle-hold on down-under and on the other side of the world, winter will begin to wail at the door. What better way to keep hot and steamy, no matter what side of the planet you live, than to release on 1^st December four short erotic stories under the Hot-Down Under label.

With a hot new digital publisher, Momentum Publishing, an imprint of Pan Macmillan Australia, and written by Aussie authors, these stories are bound to keep you ‘warm’.

We’d love to hear what you think of the second release covers below.

 

http://www.hot-downunder.com

http://momentumbooks.com.au/tag/hotdownunder/

Thank you to the team at Authors Promoting Authors for hosting our blogs.

Six of a Story, The Summer Called Angel, Sola Olu

"My journey to motherhood began with a siren-blaring, horn-blasting ride to the emergency room of a specialist hospital. Within a day, everything I had imagined for the birth of my child changed". And so began the memoir "The Summer Called Angel - a story of hope on the journey through prematurity". This moving and inspirational memoir provides intimate, hands-on details of the complexity of preeclampsia and prematurity as well as the emotional toll taken on parents who must witness their tiny baby struggle for life. With equal parts remorse and resolve, Sola and Chris struggle along, with the sole, all-consuming focus on their daughter’s survival.

How can we as readers, relate to your main character?  

 The main character here is myself, as a mother and I believe any parent can relate to me. Any parent or expectant parent that knows that love for the child begins at conception, and knows that from that time on, they will fight to protect the child by all means. It also focuses on my husband who goes through every bit of the experience with me, and I hope he inspires dads everywhere with his strength and focus at the time we needed it most.

What makes her stand out from all the other main characters found in other pages?  

Mainly because the story is told from my point of view. My husband is of course side by side with me, but my emotions, my ups and downs, my humanity, my weaknesses and strengths are laid bare in a relatable way.

What was your worst trait?  

Anxiety I would say, but in the circumstances where there was a mixture of hope, helplessness, resolve, confusion, I'm not sure how else I could have reacted or I didn't know how else to react. What I did learn though is no matter how anxious you become, it doesn't change or solve anything, whereas faith does solve problems. Letting go and letting God does solve problems.


What do you think will make a reader want to read this book?  

Premature birth is the leading cause of newborn babies, with 1 in 8 births ending in premature births. The Summer Called Angel will resonate with preemie parents because it tells them that there is hope, miracles do happen, and these babies do make it and make it well. It will also impact parents who have had healthy babies by making them appreciate their own birth experience even more.


Is there a strong message to this story? Or is it just for pleasure and a fun read? 

I hope there is a strong message - it's a story that says even in the darkest tunnels there is hope, and that bad situations do turn out to be good. When I was in the NICU, as a parent all I wanted to hear were stories of babies who made it and were doing well. That sometimes is all we have to hold on to. I hope it offers "strength to readers attempting to process prematurity in their lives—and salve to those who have undergone a similar experience. All in all, rare and profound celebration of devotion is certain to resonate with parents everywhere." (Dana Mitchelli - reviewer)

The Summer Called Angel is available on Amazon  (both kindle and paper back), Barnes and Noble,  Createspace and the authors website.