Showing posts with label free books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label free books. Show all posts

Friday, January 12, 2018

Wow! #ebooks for #free or #cheap by Vonnie Davis

Okay, hands up. Who doesn't love a good sale? I certainly do. There's just something satisfying about saving ten cents on a pound of chicken or eighteen dollars on a sweater. Books are no different. Yesterday, I read an ad about Bookbuh, claiming to be THE new hot spot for readers. A book bargain bonanza. https://tinyurl.com/yam6fzez

Signing up is easy; just give then your email and chose four or five genres you love to read. You'll get a daily email with a list of free or deeply reduced ebooks for a day or a week.

One lady claims she's gotten more books for free from this site than she'll ever read. OUCH! Not what a writer likes to hear.

On the other hand, books put on sale there for a day or more make authors money due to volume sold. It also helps us build a reader base YAY!

A few of my books have been put on Bookbub by the publisher. One book with Harper Collins sold over 2500 copies on the day it was featured on sale. This was a book in a series of four. All benefited from that one book's sale day. That is to say, my rankings shot up on all of them over the next month.

When Random House places one of my books on Bookbub, that book will shoot to the top one-hundred and higher rankings on Amazon and the top twenty or higher on Barnes & Noble. My books typically sit in the 100,000 to 350,000 rankings. So this boost, even for a few days, is a boon for me.

But how hard is it for an independent author to place his/her book on Bookbub? First, you have to come up with the money. Calvin's checked into it for me and costs run between $400 to $800. per day, depending on the genre. For example, the romantic suspense I thought about trying to get listed would cost us roughly $500.

The numbers of reviews play into your chance of getting a spot, too. Not for a publisher, it seems, because my book with Harper Collins barely had 30 reviews. The last time I tried to get one of my independent books on Bookbub, I was told it didn't have enough reviews. But I was never told what the minimum was. How come, I wonder.

So, I'm slowly trying to get more reviews of Book One of my Paris Intrigue series in hopes of one day getting it on Bookbub.

AMAZON BUY LINK: http://a.co/3zrBkVT

CHAPTER ONE

 A grim-faced guard stepped in front of Alyson Moore when she raised her camera to take a picture. “Madame, in the Louvre, we do not photograph the Mona Lisa.” His lips fashioned a thin line of disapproval.
 Alyson’s eyes scanned the crowd, for even as the security guard admonished her, scores of other tourists, their arms upraised, used cell phones to snap photos. “Am I the only one trying to take a picture here?” Without waiting for a reply, she pocketed her camera, and the snippy, tight-assed guard moved on.
She shouldered her way through the early morning crowd in the Salon Carrẻ to get a closer look at the painting encased in bullet-proof glass. Seeing Da Vinci’s masterpiece was a dream come true. No one, not even an overzealous guard, would spoil her time with Mona.
Once the museum opened its doors at nine sharp, and Alyson passed through security, she hurried to see this woman of mystery. The throngs of people already crowding the gallery surprised her.
She slipped between two men and stepped closer to the leading lady of the gallery. Alyson’s nose twitched from the sweet and sour blitz of assorted perfumes and various degrees of hygiene. Murmurings of adulation echoed off the gallery walls as if the Mona Lisa were a five-hundred-year-old rock star. How had one painting achieved such stardom?
If the ever-present guard wouldn’t allow photographs, she’d sketch some of Mona’s fans standing, spellbound by her enigmatic smile. When she finally tugged her large sketchpad free from the tight confines of her yellow leather bag, other items fell and scattered.
Alyson crouched to retrieve pieces of charcoal, just as the man standing next to her bent to place a black backpack, the style European men were so fond of carrying, on the marble tile floor.
Their eyes locked.
“Excuse me, you’re standing on my things.” Alyson pointed to his shoe. The man, face damp with perspiration, scowled, raised his foot and snatched her navy scarf, hotel keycard and passport, crushing them into a ball. He stuffed the wadded scarf into her outstretched hand and stood.
Alyson reached, fingering for the last charcoal pencil that rolled beyond her reach. She straightened and realized the man in the dark green t-shirt was walking away. The tattoo of a scorpion on the back of his neck. “Sir? Sir, you’ve forgotten your bag. Monsieur?
He didn’t respond.
She called after him again.
The man disappeared into the crowd.
The museum guard approached. “Is there a problem, Madame?”
“Yes, that man left his backpack here.” Alyson indicated the black canvas bag on the floor. “He set it down at the same time I dropped some things.” She held out her navy scarf to show the guard and suddenly it hit her that her scarf was empty. She shook it out to make sure. “My hotel key and passport!” Pulling apart the sides of her shoulder bag, she rummaged through its contents, hoping against hope she’d shoved them inside without thinking. Still, with her passport the same shade as her scarf, she assumed it was wrapped in the scarf’s folds.
“I don’t believe this. He took my keycard and passport. Why would he take my things and leave his bag behind?”
The guard’s eyes widened for a second. “Madame, you are sure the man left this bag?” He pressed a button and spoke into a speaker attached to the lapel of his uniforme, a scowling gaze intent on Alyson.
“Yes. He…he was setting it on the floor at the same time I squatted to retrieve my fallen items. I asked him to move his foot since he was standing on them.” Alyson groaned as realization sunk in. She was in a foreign country with no passport. Oh, hell!
The guard cautiously unzipped the backpack. Yellow wires. The man stepped back,  depressed the communications button again, and spoke rapid-fire French. Pandemonium erupted. Armed guards rushed toward the abandoned black bag. Once the word “bomb” was uttered, visitors screamed as they stampeded from Mona Lisa’s room.
Suddenly, Alyson stood in the eerie deafening silence with only the pounding of her heart and the cocking of guns reverberating in her ears—she and the black bag containing explosives surrounded by eight armed guards.
Holy effing shit!

WWW.VONNIEDAVIS.COM

Sunday, June 4, 2017

Some Fun Stuff by Christine DePetrillo

If you get my newsletter then this is old news to you, but if you don't... hey, if you don't get my newsletter, where have you BEEN? C'mon. Sign up for it and don't miss a minute of the fun. You can sign up HERE at the bottom of my website Home page.

In the meantime, here's some "stuff" from my last newsletter that is still going on:

Fun Stuff #1:  

I've decided that my new romance writing project will be related to random acts of kindness. I've been collecting news stories in my "idea file," but I would love to hear from you folks with more ideas. What types of random acts of kindness would you like to see in my new books? What acts do you think would result in two people falling in love? Have you done any random acts of kindness or been on the receiving end of such an act? Send me your thoughts through my contact page on my website or on my author Facebook page

If I select your idea, I will acknowledge you in my book AND let you name a character!

****

Fun Stuff #2:

So you like FREE books, right? Below is a short list of FREE books you can download right away and start enjoying. It might be your chance to find your next favorite author. Just click the book titles. 

NOT OVER YOU - Healing Springs, Book One by Amanda Torrey

She’s running from a painful past. Can he catch her and help her heal?

Savannah Grace left her hometown after the traumatic death of her young brother ten years ago. Fresh out of high school, she trudged through life under a shroud of guilt and shame. She couldn’t face her family after what she did, and she knew she didn’t deserve happiness.

Quentin Elliott became a paramedic so he could save people. He hadn’t been able to help his high school girlfriend’s brother, but he vowed to prevent as many tragedies as possible. He managed to build a life without Savannah, but he never moved past her.

When Savannah returns to town in hopes of donating bone marrow to her estranged mother, Quentin knows he will only have a short time to help Savannah realize she should stay in Healing Springs. Where she belongs. With him.

Savannah prefers to lace up her running shoes, but Quentin is determined to create a treatment plan to help her settle in for the long haul.

Can a decade of pain be healed with a healthy dose of love? Or will Healing Springs fail to live up to its legendary name?


THE TEACHER'S BILLIONAIRE - The Sherbrookes of Newport, Book One by Christina Tetreault

Callie Taylor's life is turned upside down when she learns the truth about her birth following the death of her mother. Not only is her father alive, but he's none other than presidential candidate Senator Warren Sherbrooke.

Billionaire and confirmed bachelor, Dylan Talbot, is devoted to his family. When his stepfather Warren Sherbrooke receives a letter from a past love telling him they have a daughter together, Dylan is instantly suspicious. In order to keep the media vultures away and protect Warren's political aspirations, Dylan convinces Warren to let him handle the situation.

As Callie and Dylan spend time together, they can't resist the feelings that blossom between them. However, when Callie learns the real reason he has been spending time with her their fledgling romance is put in jeopardy and only complete honesty can save it.



ALWAYS MINE - The Barrington Billionaires, Book One by Ruth Cardello

When it comes to getting what he wants, Asher Barrington is a hammer who is known for crushing his opponents. From the moment Emily walks into his office and challenges him, winning takes on a whole new meaning.

The only thing standing between Emily Harris and her goal to open a museum for the blind is an arrogant, sexy as hell billionaire, who thinks sleeping with her will not complicate the situation.

He won’t change. She won’t back down.
But together they sizzle.



SAFE - The Shielded Series, Book One by Christine DePetrillo

The year is 2025. A techhead terrorist group called the Anarch has unplugged the world. While the globe struggles to get out of the darkness, a chemist, Dr. Mikale Warres—bitter about his dismissal from one of the world’s most successful corporations, Emerge Tech—unleashes a plague that turns human organs to ash. He hopes to wipe out the population and restart it.

Only one scientist, Dr. Foster Ashby, can find the cure. He’s been searching for it, but it remains just out of reach. Warres knows Foster is close to stopping his plans for the globe and decides Foster must die. Immediately.

Officer Darina Lazitter is assigned to protect Foster after he takes too long in the city getting samples of Warres’s disease. The job is simple—get Foster safely back behind Emerge Tech’s walls. Shielding him from her heart, however, is proving harder than shielding him from the enemy.


****

Fun Stuff #3:

Want to be in the running to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card to buy more books or anything else the mighty Amazon sells? Simply recommend my books to a friend and send me an email via my contact page on my website or in a comment on my author Facebook page telling me you did so to be entered. Write an Amazon review of one of my books and gain a bonus entry for yourself when you send me a link to the review. Forward this blog post to a friend and receive another bonus entry for yourself. Again, you have to let me know what options you've done to get the extra entries.

I will pick one winner randomly on June 16th (which is the last day of school where I teach fifth grade, whoohoo). Good luck! 

Toodles,
Chris
www.christinedepetrillo.weebly.com 
The Maple Leaf Series, available now
The Shielded Series, available now
The Warrior Werewolves Series, coming soon!

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Free vs 99 Cents ~ What works best to sell books? by Jannine Gallant

I've seen a lot of controversy lately between various writing groups about the benefit of free books and 99 cent sales as a promotional tool. There seem to be three camps:

1) Giving away books devalues our work and should never be done. Many of these authors also frown on 99 cent sales.

2) Offering a book for free is a tool that can be used to introduce new readers to our writing and increase sales of our other books. These folks are usually divided into the perma-free and short term free categories.

3) Free no longer works because the market is glutted with free books. 99 cent sales are more effective.

So, here's my take on the subject. First of all, for me, writing is a business. My goal is to sell books, and noble ideals have nothing to do with it. Sure, I'm all about turning out the best product possible, but when it comes to promotion, I care about what actually works. So, camp #1, while I completely agree with the premise that our writing is valuable and should be rewarded as such, I'm not a big fan of putting conviction before sales. And since this is a free market society, and there are plenty of authors out there willing to give away their books, chances are moral conviction isn't going to lead to sales.

Now, the logic behind camp #2 is sound. I was all for giving away a book for free for a limited period to generate interest, but this was way back in the spring and summer of 2013. This strategy actually worked very well three years ago. But there were key elements to its success. First off, the free book had to be part of a series. The second and third books in the same series far outperformed my other back list books in residual sales. Also, interestingly enough, once the free week ended, the first book also sold very well for the same period of time as the others--usually about a month before they all started to fall off the radar. So, while I gave away over 20,000 downloads during the two week-long free periods, I sold around 900 books as a result. However, as 2013 drew to a close, these free weeks stopped performing. I had fewer free downloads and was lucky to net 100 sales as a result. It was all downhill after that. So, being a reasonably intelligent businesswoman, I quit offering my books for free since I've never been one to beat a dead horse! (Sorry about the cliche.)

Which leads to camp #3. This is the one I'm currently in, although I could change strategies if I see a benefit in the future. There are so many free books out there that people download them by the thousands and never read the vast majority. Having your book sit unread on someone's kindle isn't going to help you increase sales of your other books. Ergo, no benefit to you, the author! However, for thrifty people who troll the free and discounted books, I firmly believe if they even pay as little as 99 cents, they're far more likely to read the book simply because they paid for it. I know I would be... So, I think 99 cent sales for a book in a series will indeed net sales for your other books at full price if your sale book is strong enough to make the reader want to pick up the next one in the series. When it comes right down to it, no amount of promo will work if you don't have a great product.

However, there's a catch to this strategy. And it's a big one. Your 99 cent book has to get noticed, and that's damn hard in the current market glutted with free and discounted books. When left to my own devices, I see a little movement simply from posting about the sale on Facebook and Twitter, but we're talking a sale or two a day. The only thing that has actual worked for me to get big numbers (we're talking top #100 overall on Amazon numbers) is BookBub. I swear it's like magic, but it costs a LOT of money, and getting a deal with them is no easy task. I've been lucky in that my publisher has set up ads with them and paid for it. And why not, since when they do, I generate far more dollars in sales for them over the next month or two than the ad costs. Also, my overall sales have been on a steady rise as a result. Not spectacular, mind you, but better than they used to be. Part of that is due to having a pretty extensive back list at this point. Last month, my publisher got one of my books featured on Amazon's Kindle Daily Deals. For one day only, my book was 99 cents, and I topped out on their rankings at about #140 overall. Even though the book went right back to $3.99 the next day, residual sales for the whole series lasted a couple of weeks. So, Kindle Daily Deals is another promo option that actually works, but I have no idea how you get listed on your own or what it costs. It might be worth some research to find out, though.

So, let's hear your thoughts on Free vs. 99 cents? What camp are you in?


And as a side note, EVERY MOVE SHE MAKES, my first book in the Who's Watching Now series is currently 99 cents and will be all month. I have a BookBub deal scheduled for June 20th, so it will be interesting to see what transpires... Buy it HERE, or check out my other books on my WEBSITE.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Fall in Love with Serendipity! by Jannine Gallant


I love creating towns. Especially towns I can revisit in a series. When I wrote my Secrets of Ravenswood trilogy, I built Ravenswood from the ground up, a small town set in the High Sierra. For my cowboy Trouble books, I created Redemption, Texas. I got pretty elaborate with that one, making a map with a paint program so I could keep locations and street names straight. When Margo and I decided to reclaim our rights to our Class of '85 books and republish them ourselves as anthologies, we knew we had to change the location of the reunion. We moved the setting from New York on the shores of Lake Ontario to Serendipity, Vermont overlooking Lake Champlain. I love this area--absolutely beautiful! A lifetime ago I spent a summer on Stave Island, a private island smack in the middle of the lake up near the Canadian boarder. I cleaned house and mowed lawns and helped prepare meals for the people who owned it. Fun memories. This is the area where we dropped our fictional town of Serendipity. I insisted on the name. I've always loved the way the word rolls off your tongue.

In our lovely Vermont town, old classmates from Serendipity High are reunited at a twenty year reunion. These are stories of love rediscovered and second chances. Each is a stand alone book with three stories included in each anthology. Here's the good news! Right now both our books are absolutely FREE through Sept. 19th. I hope you'll grab your copies of both books and fall in love with Serendipity, too!



ROAD TO SERENDIPITY by Jannine Gallant  Click HERE to download Jannine's book from Amazon for FREE!


SATURDAY IN SERENDIPITY by Margo Hoornstra  Click HERE to download Margo's book from Amazon for FREE!

To stay updated on news about my books, check out my Website or follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Stake Out For Love by Margo Hoornstra


Part Three
He lowered his head on a sigh. Because everything they shared felt so right from day one, he’d committed to her body, mind and soul. Until she’d decided she didn’t want him any longer. For financial reasons, he stayed in the apartment. She moved in with one of her sisters. Her true feelings were never clearer than at their little yours or mine sort-out session. Part of the divorce process, dividing up any and all joint possessions.
 
That she was okay with giving away their mutual Christmas ornament, the guitar playing mouse, sealed it for him. The fact their first purchase as a couple held no emotional value for her said a lot. He’d always been a closet sentimentalist. No way would he ever admit to it, but when she was distracted with something else, he’d slipped the tree decoration inside one of his old hiking boots. What could he say? The silly figurine still held a special place for him. On the dresser in his bedroom—their old bedroom. Not that there was a chance she’d even think of setting foot in any bedroom he inhabited ever again.

Another tortured sigh would attract the bored teenager’s attention as he scrubbed counters and put away dishes. Shifting in his chair, Tony shut his eyes and allowed an internal shudder to suffice. Being without Holly, the raw reality of his loss, froze the blood in his veins. A small glacier may as well have replaced his heart. At this rate, walking back out into the below freezing temperature would seem like a warm-up.

Picking up one of the cups, he raised it to his lips as he glanced outside. Funny. From here, he had a better view of the tree they’d been assigned to watch than from the squad car. Probably because he didn’t have the distraction of Holly sitting beside him.

As more memories tried to fight their way into his mind, he brought his attention back to the tree. Glittering lights reflected off glimmering ornaments. He had to admit the entire effect was pretty remarkable. No wonder the Community Beautification Committee members were angry. Green, blue, red, yellow, and white sparkles shimmied up, down and around its branches. Most of which remained intact.

The last time he’d seen their tree, his and Holly’s, it wasn’t nearly as spectacular. Leaning in the corner of their apartment—its many internal lights dark, the box of decorations tucked underneath it. Certainly no brightly wrapped presents. Drab and alone.

Just like me without Holly.

She hadn’t wanted the tree either. He did recall his bullshit explanation for keeping it. “Save me the trouble of buying one every year.”

The tree was an artificial behemoth they’d gotten on a whim when they went to the store for groceries. The floor model. For some reason, tying it to the roof of his car had been a snap. As was unloading the eight foot tall mass of plush, artificial needles pre-strung with lights.

Getting the thing into the stairwell and up three flights was another story. Given the fun they’d had, he wouldn’t have traded one second of the clumsy effort. The elevator had been out of order, as usual.

He was at the bottom pushing, while she was at the top pulling. Twice, as they wrestled the monstrosity up the stairs, either she yanked so hard or he pushed the same way and momentum landed her flat on her back.

A smile tilted his lips at the memory.

By the time they reached the door to their apartment, they were both laughing so hard they could barely stand up. When she leaned into him for support, his arms came around her waist, and she’d lifted her face to his.

He’d kissed the tip of her nose, then one cheek and the other. By the time he got around to kissing her mouth, their laughter was a thing of the past.

Then all he could think about was getting her inside. Not until the next morning did they realize they’d left the tree out in the hall all night.

“Excuse me, sir.” The young clerk’s tentative voice broke into his thoughts. “Here’re your muffins.”

“Thanks.”

He pushed through the door and into the alley, taking the coffee she hadn’t ordered and the muffins she probably didn’t want with him.

Fat flakes of snow landed on him and the ground with a distinct plop plop plop. Keeping time with his plodding footsteps.

When they first got married, he assumed children would quickly follow. Procreation was the way of the world for a guy with five brothers, two sisters and scores of aunts, uncles and cousins. More recently, nieces and nephews. As far as he was concerned, kids were a no brainer.

Holly didn’t automatically agree. Which made no sense. She’d be a fantastic mother. He knew for a fact she was a fantastic wife.

Past tense.

He stopped short as he neared the partially hidden squad car. No brainer, hell. More like him being brainless. Too stupid to give her side, the views she tried to explain, more consideration.

She didn’t even look up as he climbed behind the wheel. His breath was coming in short, sudden bursts. Exertion from his walk. Yeah right.

“I bought cranberry muffins.” He held up the bag when she finally turned toward him. “Maybe you’ll want some later.”

Still, she didn’t really look at him. “That was nice. Thank you.”

“Coffee too.” He set the cardboard carrier with the two Styrofoam cups on the console between the seats.

“I turned the wipers on so I could see out the windshield.”

“That’s good.”

Their back and forth motion was a constant flap, flap, flap. The snow falling on the roof, a continual plop, plop, plop. Rising above it all, the labored thud, thud, thud of a newly wakened heart.

“What did I miss?” Other than your beautiful face? Your presence beside me? The body I so long to make love to.

“What?” She glanced his way and the lack of emotion on her face tore at his heart. “Not much. Dispatch called another unit to yet another domestic.” She rested her head against the seat back. “What is it with people tonight? Don’t they know we’re all supposed to make an effort to get along together on Christmas Eve?”

It was now or never if he stood any chance of getting back the love of his life.

“Maybe it’s more difficult for people to get along during the holidays. Heightened expectations and all that.”

“I suppose.”

Keeping his hands to himself was darned near more of a challenge than he was up to right now. “Holly, I—”

He wasn’t sure she’d heard him as she turned to stare out the side window.

“Well, look at that.”

“Look at what?”

Careful to not tip over the hot coffees, he leaned in slow. The subtle scent of the perfume she always wore drifted over him. He couldn’t ignore the sweet invitation to move a little closer. The curve of her uniform clad shoulder gave way to the skin exposed at the side of her neck, just below her earlobe. A place he used to love to explore with his lips. A tiny pulse flickered under the skin.

“There’re your vandals.”

Dragging his gaze away from her, he resisted the urge to rest his chin on her shoulder, then had to smile. “Well, I’ll be darned.”

Four squirrels, adolescents judging by their size, scampered toward the Christmas tree to disappear inside it. First the lower branches began to shake, then the middle, and finally the top. Ornaments jiggled, quivered and eventually fell to the ground. The oddly synchronized movements ran up the tree then down a couple of times more before four brown, furry bodies shot back to where they’d come from.

“What do you know about that?” Glancing behind her as she spoke, her lips nearly collided with his.

Mouth open, she pulled back, while Tony didn’t move a muscle. A millimeter of space. That was all he had to close between them, and his lips would cover hers. Pausing to swallow, his gaze captured hers and held.

She looked away and reached for the radio. “Shall we call the Chief?”

His hand came over hers. “In a minute. There’s something I want—” He blew out a breath. “—need to say to you first.” When she didn’t tell him to go to hell, he went on. “I think I know where we went wrong, Holly. You and me.”

She pressed her lips together but didn’t turn away.

He sat back in the seat but held fast to her hand. “I think we got hung up not so much on different values as different perspectives. We both want the same things. We just differ on the best way to get there.” He went on before she had a chance to answer. “I was wrong, and I’m so very, very sorry.”

For the first time in a long, long time, she came up with a weak smile. “It’s my fault too. Not just yours. I’m sorry too.”

They talked over each other in a flurry of offered compromises until Tony couldn’t take it any longer.

“Enough!” When she stopped speaking, he gazed at her across the squad car’s front seat. “It’s killing me to not reach over to take you in my arms.” His voice lowered. “Hold on tight and never let go.”

She let out a tiny laugh. “Me too. Imagine the calls they’d get at the station at the sight of two cops in the front seat of a squad car making out.”

Head rested back, he cast over a loving glance. “That’s one visual I could definitely get used to.”

He squeezed her hand. When she squeezed his back, a warm tingle shot up his arm and over his collar bone where it picked up his small and shriveled heart and put it back in place to grow.

She gave him a huge smile. “This is the only place I’d want to spend Christmas. Together with you.”



If you liked this story, do I have a deal for you. My latest release Only If You Dare is free on Amazon. Today is the last day.

Please click here for a Free Download of Only If You Dare

For more about my books, me and more FREE stories, visit me at www.margohoornstra.com


Merry Christmas!


Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Who Loves 80's Rock? by Jannine Gallant

Why did I write three books for the Class of '85 series, you ask? The series title hooked me. Okay, so I didn't graduate from high school in 1985, but I graduated from college in 1984. Those four years hold some wonderful memories. Times spent with good friends - carefree and happy, before the grown-up worries of a mortgage and how to pay for my kids' braces intruded.

June 18th through the 22nd, five books from this terrific series are free, including the first one I wrote, Lonely Road To You. To celebrate, I'm taking a trip back to the past and reliving those years. Today, let's talk music!

What music memories are conjured up when you think of the early 80's. For me, it's skipping through the halls of my dorm, singing Foreigner's Urgent and the Cars' Shake It Up really loud as a stress release before finals. I went to a couple of Pat Benatar concerts, and Hit Me With Your Best Shot was my favorite on Karaoke night. We listened to a lot of pop-rock back then. (Was it as crappy as the stuff the kids listen to now?) Do you remember hits by Yes, Quarterflash, and REO Speedwagon? If you're my age, I bet you do. And my all-time favorite song from that era, Stevie Nicks' Leather and Lace.

My hero in Lonely Road To You is an ex rock star looking for some forgiveness at his high school reunion for a youth spent with a love 'em and leave 'em attitude. Instead, he finds a love he never expected.

As I mentioned, five books from the series are free. Just click on the titles to be taken directly to the Amazon download link!

Lonely Road To You by Jannine Gallant
To Be, Or Not by Margo Hoornstra
Promises, Promises by Silver James
Embraceable You by Kat Henry Doran
Something More by Keena Kincaid

For more 80's nostalgia, follow me on my mini blog tour where I'll be talking about 80's fashion (shudder), the TV shows and movies that held us enthralled, and how life back then was different for kids than it is today. Find me at these places:

Vintage Vonnie June 19th
Keri Neal June 20th
JM Stewart June 21st
Kathy Wheeler June 22nd

So, what were some of your favorite songs from the early 80's? Let's immerse ourselves in nostalgia!

For information on my other books, including two more in the Class of '85 series, check out my website.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

So Many Books – So Little Time…


By Glenys O'Connell @GlenysOConnell

It might sound obvious, but readers and writers have a lot in common.
For example, if you’re like me, going into a real bricks and mortar bookstore is like the proverbial kid and the candy store. Ditto for browsing Amazon, B & N, etc. So many books, so little time.

You start out with a plan to buy maybe one, or two….and suddenly, your basket is full of tasty delights. You get a sweet little flavour boost by reading the back cover blurbs, your taste buds sing the Hallelujah chorus as you dip through the pages at random.

Then reality hits. You can only read and really savor one book at a time (at least, I can). Your To Be Read pile already competes with Mt. St. Helens – and may also be ready to erupt all over your bedroom floor. Your book budget (if you actually had one) is already shot. Your friends, neighbours, significant other, are all going to roll their eyes when they see you sneaking in the back door with your books. True addicts actually change from the bookstore bag to a grocery bag in an attempt to hide their addiction. On your credit card statement, you have the bookstore’s bills hidden under the ‘household’ or ‘car maintenance’ tags. 
You realise you can’t take all the books in your basket. But having to choose is likely to send you into Post Traumatic Shock.  Eventually, you choose one or two books and, tears in your eyes, you put the rest back on the shelves, whispering a sad farewell and promising to come back soon.

For writers, the scenario is the same, but we’re dealing with embryo books – ideas that have snuck into our consciousness and refuse to go away. Most of us have a file marked ‘Book Ideas’. It’s really the only way to silence the clamor for a few weeks while we finish the book we’re working on. But writing The End on one manuscript is like opening the floodgates – all those half-baked, half-formed ideas in Book Ideas now scream for attention. Write me! Write Me!
Which to Choose? Which to Choose?

Often I will start out on one idea, only to realise my Muse, or subconscious mind, needs more time to work on it, then I have to close that file and look for another candidate. Many of the book ideas consist only of a paragraph or two, a signpost towards greater creative effort. Some are several pages, others just a couple of links to news stories or bits of research I've discovered on the web which seem to be crying out for a novel plot. Some will never make it as viable books alone – but joined in matrimony with another book idea, suddenly there’s hope of a long and happy relationship.
The biggest problem of all, rather like deciding which books to take to the checkout and which to leave behind,  is keeping all those other ideas in line while you concentrate on the work-in-progress. My personal scheme is to accept that every now and again I’ll think of a scene, a dialogue line, or see an article, hear a bit of gossip, that will fit one of those story ideas. I open the file, type in the info, maybe add a bit, then firmly close the file before falling into the trap of starting to actually write the book.

Otherwise, I’d have a hundred works-in-progress – none of them ever finished.


So, I’d love to hear how other readers and writers choose which books to buy, which books to write!

There’s a copy of my very first novel, Judgement By Fire, waiting for one lucky commenter.
 
A print copy of Winters & Somers, my Irish romantic comedy/suspense: Lisa Rayns
Lisa, please email me at glenysoconnell at msn. com with your email addy  and home address for the print. Thanks for taking part!

 

Glenys O’Connell is busy with edits for her upcoming release: Saving Maggie, a romantic suspense with paranormal elements, just contracted by Crimson Romance! You can keep up with her news & articles at www.glenysoconnell.com