Saturday, January 10, 2015

Cover Reveal - Secrets Revealed MysticSeekers III

Happy Saturday, everyone! Today, I have a little post for you all from N. L. Greene! I hope you enjoy this look at the newest installment of her series. Have a wonderful day and stay warm!

I'm so excited to finally share the cover for the final book in The MysticSeekers Series...

Secrets Revealed! 

But, before we do, here's a little bit about the book...

Author - 
N.L. Greene

Author Bio - 
Author N.L. Greene is a writer of YA and NA Contemporary and Paranormal Romances. She currently lives in Florida with her husband and two beautiful daughters. When she isn't writing or reading, she enjoys traveling around the world with her family, shopping and doing other girly things with her girls, or playing video games with her husband. She is a lover of dogs, chocolate, and anything pink!

Book Blurb - 
In the final book of The MysticSeeker Series, Katherine Rebecca will have some hard decisions to make that will forever alter her life.  Lance finally showed his true colors when he attacked and nearly raped her, but amid all the turmoil and confusion new secrets were exposed.  Shocking revelations that had her spinning and questioning everything and everyone in her life.
Sam is a magic user like Blaine and although she saved Becky, Becky's smart enough to know that her 'friends' sudden appearance in her life isn't a coincidence. What does Sam really want with Becky? And was she pretending to be her friend to get it?  Ethan, Becky's best friend and knight in shining armor has been there for her, proving to be a loyal and trustworthy friend. She hasn't been blind to his true feelings for her though. Having fallen for Blaine so quickly, she pushed Ethan away keeping him solidly in the friend zone. But when Ethan shows up distraught and worried after Lance's attack, she wonders if she'd made a mistake.
Until Blaine Winters knocked on her door again.
Can Becky handle Blaine's disappearing and reappearing acts while dealing with Ethan's feelings, Sam's deception, and the things that are still going bump in the night?


And Finally.... 
THE COVER!!!!




Author Links - 


Other books by this Author - Illusions Begin (MysticSeeker Series book 1) Magic Unfolds (MysticSeekers Series book 2), Twisted, & Fractured Glass (A novel anthology)

Love it? Yeah, so do I!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Friday, January 9, 2015

Official utopYA Con Author Interview - Marissa Meyer

Happy, happy Wednesday, good people of the blogosphere! This is my official utopYA con 2015 post for the month of January. I’m excited to be bringing you one of the female authors tearing up the book market right now, Marissa Meyer! That’s right, the author of The Lunar Chronicles is gracing you with her presence. *grin* So exciting! She’ll be at the conference in June, and she’ll be speaking on two panels: ClockWise World Building and Gender Roles & Stereotypes. If you haven’t added those to your schedule yet, do that now.

For this month, the official bloggers are bringing you amazing utopYA panelist interviews, information, and awe-inspiring stories. Be sure and visit the other wonderful utopYA blogs:

Week 2 – A Book Vacation
Week 3 – The Paisley Reader
Week 4 – Book Junkie: Not So Anonymous

Remember, I'll be bringing you snippets of those posts with links every Friday so you'll remember to head over and check them out.

Let’s get to the interview! I know you’re all eager to hear what I’m going to ask.

Jo: Welcome to the blog, Marissa. You’re such an inspiration to so many female authors out there, and I’m honored to have you for a few questions. I can’t wait to meet you at utopYA. That being said, for my first question, I’d like to know what the best piece of advice you’ve ever gotten on writing was and who it came from.

Marissa: Thank you so much for including me in your utopYA blogger coverage! I’m not sure where I first heard this advice (it’s certainly not unique), but I think the best advice is to write what you’re truly excited about, and what you love. It can be tempting to try and write to the trends or follow the market, but writing can be a long, exhausting process, and you need love and passion to get all the way to the end. And that passion will show through in the final product!

Jo: You’re so very welcome. We're stoked you had the time! That’s awesome advice, and I know a lot of writers will benefit from it. Hear that, everyone? Write what you’re excited about! Question two: Did you expect the wild success of your series, and how did you feel when you realized it was taking off the way it did?

Marissa: Oh, never. When I was writing Cinder I thought it would be a miracle if anyone else ever read it. There were many days when I thought I must be crazy, thinking that anyone else in the world would be interested in reading about a cyborg Cinderella! But that goes back to writing what you love – I was so excited about Cinder’s story from the moment it popped into my head, so I knew I had to write it and try to publish it. Once I started submitting to agents, though, things started to happen fast and I began to think that, okay, maybe I’m not crazy after all! The series ended up going to auction between two publishers, and Macmillan sent us a preliminary marketing plan, which was very extensive and enthusiastic. I think that was the first point when I realized that maybe this was going to be a Big Thing. (Though to this day it doesn’t feel entirely real!)

Jo: I can’t imagine how you felt. Must’ve been one heck of a high! You’re living the dream so many authors have. Congratulations! How awesome. Question three: What fuels your creative process?

Marissa: Ever since I was a kid I’ve lived my life half in reality, half in daydreams. I just constantly have little fantasies going through my head, and over time those start to crystallize into stories, complete with characters and adventures and little snapshots of different scenes. I long ago realized that if I didn’t write those stories down, they would haunt me forever. I might go through periods where I’m not “inspired” or excited about a particular writing project, but that need to write never goes away entirely.

Jo: I’m with you there. So many words, so little time! *grin* I have to know: Did you plot out your entire Lunar Chronicles series before you started writing? If yes, how long did it take you and what were some of the road-bumps you had to navigate through? If no, what’s been the biggest drawback to not having a set plot?

Marissa: I did – I’m big on outlines, and I knew early on that I wanted this series to overlap and intertwine in a way that felt really airtight. So I outlined all four books before I started writing, which probably took a couple of months, and then I drafted Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress all back to back. It was really helpful for getting a feel for the plot and characters and being able to foreshadow some events in the later books. That said, things always change, no matter how much forethought I put into them! So while I may have drafted the first three books early on, they all ended up having to be rewritten once I really started figuring things out. It was worth it, though—having so much written at the beginning of the process gave me a lot to work with.

Jo: I bet that helped when you were shopping book one. I know I’d like to see an author with their stuff together if I were a publisher. That’s quite an undertaking. Fantastic job! Last question! Since time travel is the theme of utopYA con 2015, I like to ask about past and future choices. So, is there anything you’d go back and change in your writing career? What impact do you think it would have?

Marissa: Oh my, good question! There was one novel that I’d started writing before Cinder about a teenage girl who was secretly an assassin. I ended up setting that novel aside for various reasons, but it still has a special place in my heart and I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I’d finished and tried to sell that book first, especially now with the success of assassin books like Grave Mercy and Throne of Glass. This isn’t so much a regret—obviously things have worked out pretty well with The Lunar Chronicles!—but it’s one of those things that I think about sometimes. Who knows, maybe that book will make a reappearance someday!

Jo: Well, if it does, I’m sure it’ll be as amazing as your series! Thank you so much for gracing us with your presence. I know you’re a very busy lady, and I appreciate you taking the time for my interview. I’ll see you at utopYA!

Now you know what kind of amazing people you’ll get to meet at the con. If you don’t have tickets yet, get them here while they’re still at early-bird prices.

Want to read Cinder? Pick up a copy on Amazon here for $2.99 (as of the date of this post).
Already read Cinder? Interested in Fairest? Pre-order it on Amazon here for $9.99 (as of the date of this post). Releases Jan 27, 2015.

Let’s give Marissa a follow on social media, shall we?
Twitter: @Marissa_Meyer
Facebook: Marissa Meyer Author
Website: MarissaMeyer.com

Thanks for reading the interview, and I do hope you pick up a copy of Cinder, book one of the series!

Well, that’s all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Your Blog's Big Event

Happy Thursday, good people of the blogosphere! Since Thursday is writing tips day, I thought I'd give a little to the bloggers out there about planning and hosting an event. So, get your pens and notebooks ready, grab your coffee, and let's get rolling!

As you may know, every year I do a little thing here on the blog called the 12 Days of Review Requests. This event not only gets me great books to read and review over the next year, it also helps me expand my network, meet new (awesome) people, and connect with other book bloggers and reviewers.

I spend all year thinking about what I'll do next and planning my marketing for December. I have to choose days, invite awesome bloggers, and gather donations from other authors. 2014 was the biggest year yet, and I intend to make it even more epic in 2015.

Over on My Book Addiction, Toni Lesatz has her zOctober event that focuses solely on zombie novels and the authors who write in that genre. She sent me information three months out about my guest post, what was expected of me, and what I needed to do to take part. That told me she spends a ton of time setting her event up, too.

So, if you went through my how to become a book blogger series, you'll know there's a lot more to running a blog than just choosing a name and typing stuff up once in a while. You need a plan and a big event of some kind that'll take your blog to a new level. After all, what good is a blog if no one reads it, right?

But, before you get all crazy, you have to first decide what kind of event you're going to hold and what you're gonna call it. Here's a quick list of things to consider:
  • Why should people attend?
  • What's in it for them?
  • What's in it for you?
  • How will it be run?
  • Where can you market your event?
  • What if (what can go wrong)?
  • Will you accept donations? If yes, what kind?
  • How long do you have to plan?
  • How long will your event run?
  • Is there another blog with a huge event running in the same time frame?
  • Could you partner to make both events a little bigger?
  • How will you handle donations? Will you deliver the goods or will the donator?
After you answer all those questions, you're ready to start planning. Take these steps:
  1. Form a marketing plan for the event based on the type (I'll get to that in a moment).
  2. Plan for snafus.
  3. Ask for donations (if you plan to take them).
  4. Set up your Rafflecopter forms.
  5. Design stuff for your theme.
  6. Pre-write your posts or gather guest posts and get them formatted.
  7. Prepare your invites.
  8. Take a deep breath and dive in!
Here are some types of events:
  • Blog challenges: Many bloggers join and plan to post each day--and visit posts by others--for a set period of time (do a search for the A-Z challenge, and the Author Blog Challenge).
  • Author/theme spotlights: Guest authors appear and highlight their books. Can be in one genre or many (zOctober).
  • Book Celebrations: Readers gather together to talk books, and/or authors can join in and pitch books (12 Days Review Requests).
I'm sure there are more, but those are the ones that roll off the top of my head. Your imagination is your only limit here.

You can also join up with a couple of memes. I know there's a few out there like Waiting on Wednesday (books you're looking forward to reading), Stacking the Shelves (books you've bought over the last week), and many, many more. That'll drive some traffic to your blog and help you discover other bloggers to network with.

Above all else, make your blog something people will want to stick around to look at again and again.

So, talk to me! What big events are you planning? Have you ever considered running something like this?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Book Review - The Release Club

Happy Wednesday, good people of the blogosphere! Per my updated blog schedule, you're getting a book review today! In case you haven't checked it out yet, pop on over and take a gander at the 2015 Review Team. There are a good number of folks signed up, and it's where all these reviews will be appearing once I get them written. Feel free to join in the fun. Grab a cup of coffee and get warm because it's hella cold outside!

First, a quick recap of my review books for 2015:
The Release Club 1 - Misty Provencher - REVIEW BELOW

Bound by Duty - Stormy Smith - Amazon Kindle $2.99
Shadows on Snow (A Flipped Fairy Tale) - Starla Hutchon - Amazon Kindle $2.99
From the Wreckage - Michelle G. Miller - Amazon Kindle FREE
8 Weeks - Bethany Lopez - Amazon Kindle $3.99
The Tree of Everlasting Knowledge - Christine Nolfi - Amazon Kindle $0.99
Moonlight - David Rose - Amazon Kindle $1.69
Facade: A Vampire Love Story - R. M. Webb - Amazon Kindle $0.99
Siren - Jennifer Melzer - Amazon Kindle $3.99
Queen of Someday - Sherry Ficklin - Amazon Kindle $5.99
Fragile Creatures - Kristina Circelli - Amazon Kindle $2.99
At One's Beast - Rachel Barnard - Amazon Kindle $2.99
Unseen - Stephanie Erickson - Amazon Kindle $2.99
The Heart Thief - S. Lee Benedict - Amazon Kindle $4.99
Refuge - Violet Haze - Amazon Kindle $0.99
Kindling Flames-Gathering Tinder - Julie Wetzel - Amazon Kindle FREE
Dry Stories - Kate Baggot - Amazon Kindle $3.56
Kinetic: Book One of the Kinetic Trilogy - C. M. Zimmer - Amazon Kindle $2.99
Destiny Finds Her - Miranda Lynn - Amazon Kindle $2.99
To Get Me to You - Kait Nolan - Amazon Kindle $2.99
The Lady of Souls - Jenn Gott - Amazon Kindle $4.99
Sticks and Stones - Shawn McGuire - Amazon Kindle $0.99
Good Luck With That Thing You're Doing: One Woman's Adventures in Dating, Plumbing and Other Full Contact Sports - Karen Yankosky - Amazon Kindle $2.99
Desprite Measures-The Caledonian Sprite - Deborah Jay - Amazon Kindle $2.99
The Last Guardian Rises - Rebecca Trogner - Amazon Kindle $0.99 

Now, a little about the book up for review today:

Title: The Release Club 1
Author: Misty Provencher
Genre: Adult Romance
Length (print): About 70 pages
Buy Links: Amazon Kindle $0.99


Synopsis:
Accused of being too vanilla by her ex, Jes throws his crap to the curb and decides to let her curiosity take her back to her wild roots. With a membership to The Release Club, an opulent Swinger's club hidden away in the dangerous heart of the city, Jes becomes Jezebel, and pledges to uncover the truths about her sexual desires the moment she meets the fantastically handsome and mysterious man named Daire.

Bring your curiosity and come join Jezebel and Daire for the hottest hook up caught between pages!


New episode every two weeks.

**MATURE READERS AGE 18+ ONLY**

Now that we have that out of the way, let's move on to what you really came for: THE REVIEW!

***WILL NOT APPEAR IN REVIEW ELSEWHERE. I love the cover of this serial. It captures the story hiding behind the image perfectly. Misty seems to have a wonderful knack for choosing her cover art. If you recall, I reviewed The Fly House a couple months ago, so I was familiar with Misty's witty writing style. Feel free to check out that review here. Even that book had an amazing cover.***

Onward!

I picked up episode one of this serial when the author pitched it to me during an event on my blog. I grabbed the sample, dove in, and laughed until I thought my sides were going to split open. Once I got to the last page of the sample, I was horrified there was nothing left and zipped out to snag the whole banana.

Before I get into why you'll love this serial starter, let me say, if you aren't familiar with a serial, you need to read this: Serials aren't series of books. They're smaller chunks of a whole novel released as they're completed. So, if you have a serial with 5 episodes and ten chapters each, that's about 50 chapters of a longer work. No, you won't get a whole story in one episode. Think of it like a mini-series on television; when you see one episode, you're left wanting to see the next one until the series comes to a conclusion, then you can watch them all and get the seamless story. That's a serial. Now, on to the why.

From a Reader's Perspective:
Provencher has such a way with words. Not only was this story something many women could relate to, she was brutally honest about the thoughts of a woman when she's with a man who leaves something to be desired. It brings forth laughter, because you can identify with the plight/thought process of the MC, and a touch of empathy, because you know exactly where this woman is in her life's journey. There wasn't a lot of super steamy stuff in this book, but I think the author is warming up to slap you with it in the upcoming episodes of the serial. She certainly laid the groundwork well. Every character had depth that allowed me to really get a feel for them. This isn't an easy feat for the first in a serial, but it was done well. Besides all that, I dearly love to laugh, and I got plenty of wit, brutal honesty, and sarcasm from Jes that had me in stitches. You'll be dying for the second episode by the end of the first. I think the author chose the perfect scene to end with. No spoilers! You'll have to read it to find out.

From an Editor's Perspective:
Commas. Homophones. Dropped spaces between words and dropped words. Sadly, I can only give half a star for editing. I'm giving that half because there were no inconsistencies in the storyline.

Rating:
1 Star for making me laugh so hard I got strange looks from people nearby
1 Star for character development = awesome
1 Star for a perfect ending
1 Star for the bond I felt with the MC, Jes
.5 Star for flow
-.5 Star for grammar
Overall: 4.5 out of 5 stars! I round up when clicking stars, so you'll see a 5 here. Highly recommended if you're in the mood for a serial that'll make you laugh out loud and want the next episode.

What do you think? Gonna check it out?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Newly Updated Blog Schedule

Happy Tuesday, everyone! Today, I'm dazzling you all with a new blog schedule. This is more so you know what to expect from the blog in the upcoming months. Which days you may want to mark to pay my little corner of the blogosphere a visit will be easier to determine. What? You love all the posts? Well, you rock! But for those others, who come here for something specific, I'm giving you a new map to help you navigate. I'm also planning a huge re-org of the information here so you don't have to wade through things you don't need to find what you're looking for. Grab a cup of coffee, get comfy, and let's get going!

First, let's hit that new schedule!

Monday - Every other Monday, you'll get an author interview. For those off weeks in between, I'm gonna start listing the highlighted author's books. So, that's something to look forward to!

Tuesday - Digital stuff. Whether this is news, a new app to make your life easier, or something cool I found while perusing the web, I'll share that on Tuesdays.

Wednesday - Book Review Wednesday! Every Wednesday, I'll post a new book review.

Thursday - This will be a day for a writing tip. Whether a grammar lesson, editing tip, writing tip, or a nifty book you should check out about writing, you can plan to get awesome information on Thursdays.

Friday - Viva la weekend! Seriously, the first Friday of the month will have an official utopYA Con post. For the remaining Fridays, I'll be giving you a snippet and link to the other official bloggers' posts. This will be re-worked after the 2015 con.

Now, on to the re-org of information.

I'm sure you're all familiar with my categorized link list. Well, because of the volume of tips and tricks posts I do, it's becoming an unwieldy beast. No one wants to hunt through tons of endless links (even if they are defined) to find what tip they're looking for. So, I'm endeavoring to split that page into a couple more, sorting the posts so they're easier for you to find. Those informational hubs will be updated as I write posts instead of twice a year (like it's done now). You'll also find a new book reviews page so you can see those with the click of a mouse.

Keep your eyes open for those changes. I'll announce them when they happen. All this goes hand-in-hand with my plans for the blog over the coming year. You'll see things streamlined, simplified, and clutter (I hate clutter) removed. I'm trying for something more like the photo above, with everything in a neat little box. *grin*

As I change things around, let me know how you like the new layout. I hope it works better for you, and makes this beast of a blog easier to navigate.

Here's to a new year and simplification!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Monday, January 5, 2015

A New Year and Resolutions

Happy Monday, good people of the blogosphere! Well, it's a new year and all kinds of awesome stuff is happening. Today, I'm gonna talk about resolutions. Kind of. Let's get going and you'll see what I mean. *grin* Grab a cup of coffee because here we gooooo!

Do you look back over your previous twelve months each December and make plans for changes in the next year? You should. Learn from your successes, failures, and otherwise, and get yourself geared up to take on the next 365 days with gusto!

Here's what I found when I did an analysis of 2014:
  • I published two books and one short story.
  • I edited, proofread, or formatted for print (with IBGW) eleven books.
  • I launched IBGW.net and took on five new editors.
  • My blog gained 57 new subscribers.
  • My blog here reaches almost 500 people per day (measured via clicks).
  • I've grown my network by leaps and bounds.
  • I attended my first writer's conference.
  • I reviewed twenty-nine books.
  • I interviewed over twenty authors.

Looking at the above, you'd think I'd be happy as a lark, but I'm not. I think I can do better.

So, for 2015, I'm going to do the following:
  • Publish three novels and another anthology with the ladies of Fractured Glass.
  • Attend UtopYA Con again in June.
  • Publish a blog post every day (M-F) unless I let you all know otherwise.
  • Write one book review per week (which should get me very close to 52).
  • Keep up with my author interviews and make them bigger, badder, and more awesome.
  • Find a way to launch my 12 Days of Review Requests event to the next level.
  • Follow my schedule for posting to various social media sites and blogging to the Nth degree.
  • Get the Review Team's posts into the hands of more readers.

Here's my TBR list for 2015 (in no particular order):
  1. Bound by Duty - Stormy Smith
  2. Shadows on Snow (A Flipped Fairy Tale) - Starla Hutchon
  3. From the Wreckage - Michelle G. Miller
  4. 8 Weeks - Bethany Lopez
  5. The Tree of Everlasting Knowledge - Christine Nolfi
  6. Moonlight - David Rose
  7. Facade: A Vampire Love Story - R. M. Webb
  8. Siren - Jennifer Melzer
  9. Queen of Someday - Sherry Ficklin
  10. Fragile Creatures - Kristina Circelli
  11. At One's Beast - Rachel Barnard
  12. Unseen - Stephanie Erickson
  13. The Heart Thief - S. Lee Benedict
  14. Refuge - Violet Haze
  15. Kindling Flames-Gathering Tinder - Julie Wetzel
  16. Dry Stories - Kate Baggot *Read - Review to come*
  17. Kinetic: Book One of the Kinetic Trilogy - C. M. Zimmer
  18. The Release Club 1 - Misty Provencher *Read - Review to come* 
  19. Destiny Finds Her - Miranda Lynn
  20. To Get Me to You - Kait Nolan
  21. The Lady of Souls - Jenn Gott
  22. Sticks and Stones - Shawn McGuire
  23. Good Luck With That Thing You're Doing: One Woman's Adventures in Dating, Plumbing and Other Full Contact Sports - Karen Yankosky
  24. Desprite Measures-The Caledonian Sprite - Deborah Jay
  25. The Last Guardian Rises - Rebecca Trogner
  26. Witch Hunter Olivia - T. A. Kunz
  27. Never Forgotten - Kelly Risser
  28. Beyond the Western Sun - Kristina Circelli
  29. Lethal Takeout - Vered Ehsani
  30. Cursed - Jennifer Armentrout
  31. Evanescent - Carlyle Labuschagne
  32. The Forgotten Ones - Laura Howard
  33. Silent Orchids - Morgan Wiley
  34. First Impressions - Pauline Creeden
  35. Darlings of Decay - Tamara Rose Blodgett
  36. The Purgatorium - Eva Pohler
  37. Safer Outside - Kristina Renee
  38. Forbidden - Amy Miles
  39. Creatura - Nely Cab
As you can see, I have a rather long list. Keeping my fingers crossed I can get through them all. I also have a book review for Altered, book two of the Crewel series coming. So, the next three weeks are covered. *grin*

How about you? Do you do a year in review? Have a TBR? Share with me!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Indie-Visible 2.0 Soft Launch


Indie-Visible 2.0 Soft Launch

Hooray! We here at Indie-Visible are thrilled to be (soft) launching our site!

So, who the heck are we anyway? Indie-Visible is an awesome collaboration backed by a super talented team of writers, bloggers, and freelancers in the publishing industry, who you can meet here and here. Indie-Visible's BookHub is an online magazine where readers can connect with their favorite authors in fun, innovative ways.

BookHub will have a variety of columns, including Indie Book Recommendations, Interactive Contests, and all sorts of activities aimed at getting to know talented authors and their books. If this interests you, be sure to click on the subscription link below!

In the PubHub, writers can get tips on a variety of writing and publishing elements, as well as build their dream publishing team by selecting from our endorsed list of freelancers. Our goal is to provide the perfect "Hub" for writers, where an environment of expertise and professionalism will offer high-level support in all phases of the publishing process and beyond. If this interests you, be sure to click on the subscription link below!

In addition to BookHub and PubHub, Indie-Visible has another AMAZING (Top Secret!) program set to launch in February. Keep your eyes out for an announcement sometime in January. Keep up on all the goodies by subscribing to our BookHub and/or PubHub newsletters (see below).

All subscribers will also be automatically entered to win one of our AWESOME GIVEAWAY PACKAGES. More details on those coming during our Full Launch in January!

Never miss out on an Indie-Visible post!