GREETINGS FROM THE “DON’T YOU HATE BOOK TOURS?” Book Tour!

Today I'm taking a 'sickie' as we call it in Australia, so I invited my long-time blogger friend and prolific author, Roland Yeomans to help out. Roland just happens to have a new book out...what a surprise! So being addicted as I am to the Reader Discussion pages at the end of novels, I asked Roland to talk about this new addition to his latest...

Anyway, I've got to be going...Here's Roland to entertain you.

Whoa!  Look at all those rolling eyes out there.  It’s worse than the audience to the last Presidential Debate.

I understand. 

It seems we are drowning in a sea of cover reveals, book tours, and guest posts.

Ah, forget I said that last one, will you?

Anyway, since my latest book has a Readers’ Discussion Guide at the end, Denise thought you might be interested in why I included that section.

www.taftpubliclibrary.org

By some estimates, Tweet: five million Americans gather in someone’s living room, a bar, a bookstore or local library for a #bookdiscussion on the finer points of “Middlemarch” or “The Brothers Karamazov.” (If you find this interesting, please TWEET).

They are always on the lookout for a new book that will make club discussions easier. Libraries often stock these books on request as a service to book clubs, which means more SALES!! (((happy dance)))

Tweet: As #writers we need to reach #READERS. (If you find this interesting, please TWEET).
We have been fishing in our little pool and wondering why our catch is so lousy.  Go where the fish are!

And it’s not just a big-city thing:

In the event that you find yourself in Waco, Texas., check out “A Good Book and a Glass of Wine,” which has 21 members (women only) and is always looking for new ones. All you have to do is go online to source one near you!

I have written a novel which includes a variety of strong women: thinkers, inventors, newspaper correspondents, leaders – all believing they are right but some are very, very wrong.

Since we live in a world where you don’t have to actually “be” anywhere, it’s not surprising that virtual clubs have lately appeared on the Internet.

ZolaBooks bills itself as a “social eBook retailer” that connects readers. 

Goodreads gives members the opportunity to read a book together, install books they’ve read on their “shelves” or find “friends” with whom to share discoveries.

But the most prevalent way of conducting a book club is still in someone’s living room.

A book club meeting is a way of interacting through books that you don’t get through any ordinary transaction in life.

It’s like sitting around the campfire toasting marshmallows, gossiping about people, only you’re gossiping about characters in fiction, which is more meaningful and won't give you indigesion.

HELLO!  ANYONE STILL LISTENING OUT THERE? 

Here are our readers waiting for us to be discussion friendly. So how about I share my foray into the Novel Study Guide...

HOW DO YOU WRITE QUESTIONS FOR YOUR OWN NOVEL’S STUDY GUIDE?

THINK THEME.

Beyond the events of the plot, what is your book about?

MUSE YOUR CHARACTERS’ JOURNEYS

What do your characters learn along the way? How do they change and grow because of the events of the story?

PONDER THE PLOT

Rehashing the events of a book does not a book club make. They’ve all read it. How else might the events play out? How did the plot events affect the characters, and the readers?

CONSIDER YOUR CHARACTERS

What are their attributes and flaws? How are they like—or unlike—people around you? How do their flaws affect the story?

ASK OPEN ENDED QUESTIONS THAT DO NOT HAVE WRONG ANSWERS

Oh, what about my own study guide for … wait for it …

A few teasers …

- Did you know that in 1998 that 200 year old skeletons of four adults and six children were found buried beneath the home that Benjamin Franklin lived in while in London?  Was Franklin a serial killer?

- How much do we really know of history?  Are there secrets in the lives of our Founding Fathers?

Franklin was a member of the infamous Hellfire Club while in London.  Was he there as a spy or a participating member?

- In the mid and late 19^th century, women were exploring where even white men feared to go.  Ada Byron Lovelace invented the first computer language 100 years before the invention of the computer.

- Margaret Fuller, first American woman foreign correspondent for Horace Greely, manned the ramparts during the bloody Italian Civil War.

- What lessons can we draw from the feminist pioneers?

- In 1858 designs were drawn up for an air/steamship.  How different would our history have been if we had achieved transatlantic flight so early?

- Abraham Lincoln engaged in ethnic cleansing of Apache, Navaho, and Dakota Indians during the Civil War.  General Sherman ordered the killing of women and children in Georgia (from his own orders to his officers). 

- How much collateral damage is acceptable in war do you think?  And is targeting non-combatant civilians ever acceptable?

- We have fun musing in my study guide for THE NOT-SO-INNOCENTS ABROAD.

Board the Xanadu, the first Air/Steamship when it sets sail in March for an adventure of a lifetime.  Passage is only $9.99!

See you there.

Blog / Amazon Author Page

Thanks Roland for saving me! (I've been travelling for the past month and needed a helping hand). Roland has been a loyal participant in RomanticFridayWriters and now Write...Edit...Publish since its inception. This week we announce the winners of the WEP Valentine's Day challenge, judged by my original partner for RomanticFridayWriters, Francine Howarth, now a prolific Regency Romance author. 

Romance Vs Romantic Writing...spot the difference!

Any story that contains love could be said to be romantic fiction. But some are more romance-heavy than others.

ROMANCE

A story of a love affair developing between a man and a woman from the moment they experience that first frisson of chemistry right through to overcoming obstacles to the culmination of their love.

Other issues are a secondary to the romance. The real stakes are with the hero and heroine – when they are going to get together after all the obstacles to their love are overcome.

A romance novel/story describes the progress of the love story, from the meeting to that moment of commitment. All hoping for that Happily Ever After (HEA).

Barbara Cartland - what a doll!

Love, mysterious, exciting, sentimental – often scenes remote from ordinary life – I’ve never knowingly met a billionaire, have you? Yet he is commonplace in many of the latest HM&B titles which have a massive, loyal readership. Some stats say nearly 50% of all books sold are romance.

EXAMPLES:

Visions of pink chiffon à la Barbara Cartland, Historical romance, Romance fantasy, Harlequin Mills & Boon. And the stories - Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Fifty Shades of Grey, Twilight – any story, any era, where romance rules and it's all about the characters finding love and fulfillment!

ROMANTIC

Characterised by the subordination of form to theme, and by imagination and passion. Real characters live real lives with a plot that may be simplicity itself or as complex as War and Peace.

A much wider-ranging story and more ‘realistic’ than the ‘romance’.  A romantic story takes in the seamier side of life – grief, toughness, unfairness, the tribulations and hardships. Issues much broader than the hero and heroine. Modern romantic stories demand feisty characters with tons of plot twists to keep the reader spellbound.

Even if the story is bleak, there is usually a thread of hope and optimism running through it. Characters suffer, but the heroes and heroines come up smiling…some of the time. The romantic story/novel does not necessarily have a HEA.

EXAMPLES:

Gone With the Wind comes to mind, novels by Nicolas Sparks, Anita Shreve, Paullina Symons, some Jodi Picoult and many more – writers who write stories that resonate in your head for years, not usually because of the romantic element, but because of the way the issues, the background were cleverly intertwined with the hero/heroine’s romance. If you think about your stories you'll probably find a romantic element there. 

So, is one better than the other? Of course not!

Both ROMANCE and ROMANTIC writing have their place. Myself, I think of pure romance as belonging to the fantasy genre. This is why romance attracts criticism from those who don’t understand it, while the James Bond type of fantasy is admired for all that gung ho testosterone-fuelled action. Casual sex and violence is seen as more commendable somehow than the boy-meets-girl story which is the basis of romance. But isn’t romance more likely to be the experience of most people? Ah, well, I don’t mind a bit of JB shaken and stirred, but I also go for the romance hero being shaken and stirred by the heroine. Nothing wrong with that, is there?

I read both ROMANCE and ROMANTIC novels. ROMANCE for pure entertainment and escapism – it’s my preferred style of fantasy and I love a book where I can smile and giggle most of the time. Helps get me through a rough patch. I read more ROMANTIC novels these days, as this is more my style of writing. I mightn’t smile and giggle, maybe I’ll cry more, but they are stories I can’t put down and think about long after I’ve sadly read the last page.

I wrote this post with the two up-coming 'romantic' blogfests...the Lost & Found and the WEP Valentine's Day blogfest in mind. Neither blogfest is particularly looking for a hearts and flowers story (but that would be nice too!) There are just so many ways to tackle these challenges. In any case, I hope I explained the difference between romance and romantic to a point.

If you'd like to help promote the Lost & Found blogfest, tweet this:

Celebrate Loves Lost & Found with @Guilie73 @ArleeBird  @AlexJCavanaugh  @eseckman @YolandaRenee & @DeniseCCovey http://guilie-castillo-oriard.blogspot.com/2016/01/lost-found-valentines-edition-blog-hop.html

We don't have our tweets ready for the WEP 'fest. We post our linky on Feb 1. Please spread the word! 

Over at the WEP website, Francine Howarth is talking about collaboration in anthology writing.

And Yolanda Renee has just announced an exciting #SonofaPitch competition on her blog.

Thanks for coming by! I appreciate it.

Write...Edit...Publish Halloweeen Blogfest - my entry HAUNTING, combined with Francine Howarth's Halloween Blogfest.

Welcome to creepy Halloween! There are many blogfests vying for attention. I am combining the Write...Edit...Publish blogfest with Francine Howarth's Trick or Treat Blogfest where you either give or receive free books. (In comments, say if you want your name to go into a hat to win a free book - say TREAT!)

Those who participate in the WEP blogfest will be competing for a $10 Amazon Gift card from yours truly (for the entry that catches my , and Francine is donating a free e-book to a participant.

Here is my creepy story...(sorry, I've been re-reading The Book Thief for the umpteenth time with my students, so I'm a little influenced by Death as narrator.) I'm sorry it's not exactly a fun entry, but there are some of them around...

Death has come to town. He arrives on runway 13A at midnight, thirteen minutes behind schedule. Despite the ferocious Twitter campaign demanding a new runway to deal with the increased traffic, the flight was late as usual. He couldn’t resist tweeting: #JFK #FLT307 #lateagain just for the pure heck of it.

He blends in with the weary commuters—squalling infants protesting painful ears and broken sleep, briefcases no doubt stuffed with duty free goods and hotel mini bar spirits, and myriad rackety suitcases squalling about just one trip too many. No one takes any notice of Death, no one senses his menace even though he mischievously brushes against as many unfortunate travellers as he can. What fun. Back in the swing of it again after the hiccup last time. He rubs his artificial leg. That will haunt him for the rest of his days, may they be long and eventful.

Death walks, lurching a little, protecting himself from the unseemly haste of humans desperate for their comfy bed, whether hotel or home. He has no baggage to collect; it would slow him down, but this night he can’t resist a little people watching as the weary souls await luggage collection at No 7 carousel. He stands in the vast, clattery room, surrounded by chattering children and the peculiar odour of those cooped together too closely on a thirteen-hour flight, watches them fighting over their luggage like chickens in the hen house pecking for grain. 

He could have done the deed earlier, on the plane, but that would have been too easy. And not according to plan. And, heck, he would have bit the dust too, or the ocean. Not ready for that sacrifice, but the time was coming. 

Gotta always stick to the plan. He studies the bed-ready faces, wishes he could tell them how lucky they are to be alive. How capricious is Death.

He follows the crowd to customs. A blind man could find his way simply by the noise and crush of humanity not at its best. The aromas from the coffee shop tantalize his olfactory glands, but he has no desire to indulge himself. He hardly recognises the place; it’s been so long since he visited, but this is just a quick in and quick out so it doesn’t bother him. No place is home any longer. The world is his stage. And he’s such an evil player. How delicious!

No one takes any notice as he passes by. Midnight eyes are blind, even those of the custom’s man, badged MARVIN. There are things that a sleep-deprived MARVIN, probably pulling a double shift, should have noticed. Just what was hidden beneath his long black coat? They do wonderful things with plastic these days. A body search would be in order, but he’s home free. Marvin missed an opportunity to be a hero, dead or alive.

Death shrugs and heads away from the passport-stamp-thumping desks, the babel of foreign languages, the wail of exhausted children. As he exits, he deliberately brushes a young lover caught in the act of whispering sweet nothings to whoever is on the receiving end of the phone. The young lover turns his shoulder towards Death, and continues his midnight electronic tryst. Oh, young man, I could finish you in a moment!

Now Death is out of doors. Humidity clutches his throat, the acrid smell of exhaust fumes threaten to overwhelm him. Then it begins to rain before his lungs are poisoned; it washes away the grime, turning the pavement into a slippery, oozy slush.

Death squints through the tumbling rain. A shaft of moonlight shimmers on the taxi roof, turned red by the neon sign poking its broken nose from the opposite side of the barrier. How strange. But it is a strange night. He checks over his shoulder, both directions. then wrenches open the nearest taxi door. The artificial smell of air freshener offends his sensibilities. The seat sags and he lurches into the middle. He smirks, imagining the lurching that people will be doing tomorrow…er, today.

“The Plaza Hotel,” he growls to the driver. The driver gives him the finger with his eyes, then pulls out into the stream of traffic. Death doesn’t glance behind. He feels hidden in the interior with its misty windows. He has more important things to think about. The plan must be perfectly executed. Ha, ha. Perfect choice of words.

Room 13  on (well, it should be 13!) the thirteenth floor is the perfect place to visit for his thirteenth act of terror.

Death has come to town.

jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj

WORD COUNT: 758
General feedback please as this story is for this blogfest only.

Click on the WEP HAUNTED blogfest list in my right-hand sidebar to read other entries. Click on the TRICK OR TREAT badge to visit participants and to snaffle a book! 

Here are Francine's rules for both AUTHORS and VISITORS:

Authors: 

1) pop all the names of people who ask for a "TREAT" into a hat and choose a winner!

2)  Award a Kindle copy of the book/s featured to the winner

Visitors:



1) State in your comment whether you want your name popped into the author's hat.

2) Use your imagination for demanding your Treat! 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Prepare to be HAUNTED. A real-life haunting in Beijing. Three Halloween blogfests.

Hello everyone!

Well, it's October which means all kinds of awesomeness. It's the month where writing prompts abound with the theme of haunting. Halloween or All Hallows Eve, isn't much of a deal in Australia, but it is gathering momentum. What better way to celebrate than to write ghostly stories, or to post stories about ghostly happenings?

I was intrigued by a story I read in a newspaper today and I'll share it with you. For those who have entered a haunting blogfest, it may give you an idea...

Chaonel No 81

It happened in 1949. The Communists had just defeated the Nationalists in the Civil War in China. Legend has it that in the rush for the losing army to evacuate to Taiwan, a high-ranking Nationalist official based in Beijing abandoned his wife, leaving her to fend for herself as the Communists marched on the city. This was a bloody time in China, perilous if you did not belong to the Communist Party. 

Understandably, the wife was terrified--it is rumoured she was a Concubine--she chose suicide over her well-founded fear of being slaughtered by the communists. She hung herself from the rafters of the three-story French-Baroque style home. 

Locals say the spirit of the spurned woman haunts the mansion to this day. With its floor-to-ceiling cobwebs and crumbling floorboards, Chaonel No 81 certainly seems like the perfect breeding ground for paranormal activity. 

"Always, people thought the house was haunted," claims Li Yonjie, who grew up in an alleyway behind Chaonel No 81. "As children we would play hide and seek in the house, but we didn't dare go inside by ourselves." Li claims the Red Guards who used the house during the Cultural Revolution got scared and left. I wonder what scared them?

Despite the building's location in the centre of Beijing where a small courtyard home sells for several millions of dollars, there are apparently no official plans to do anything with this abandoned building. The building is on the historic list, so cannot be torn down, but can be renovated. There are no prospective buyers rushing to buy the home, which may be due to the Chinese tendency to avoid all things related to death. Who wants to live in a haunted house? Not too many of us.

The local police and the Catholic diocese (the owners of the building) reject the ghost tale, claiming there is no Kuomintang official living there.

There are conflicting histories regarding the building's provenance, but the most popular is that it was built in 1910 for a French manager of the company that built the railway between Beijing and Hankou. Whatever the history, locals are convinced it is haunted, so it sits there, crumbling, unloved and abandoned, much like the Concubine who hung herself in 1949.

You know what they say...truth is stranger than fiction...

Here are three Halloween bloghops I know of. Perhaps one entry could suit all three.

First, if you would like to post something just before Halloween (October 30) you are welcome to join my Write...Edit...Publish blogfest---theme--HAUNTING. Francine Howarth is donating a Kindle book to a random WEP entry and I am donating a $10 Amazon Gift Card to the most captivating entry.

Francine Howarth is running her own Halloween blogfest, where authors, writers and readers will be TRICK or TREATING. 

Devin Berglund has her own Haunting October Blogfest. Each day she posts an image to stimulate your writing juices. Go to Devin's blog to learn more. 

You can sign up here for the WEP blogfest in my right-hand sidebar and visit the other ladies to check theirs out.

I'd like to recommend an excellent book I bought on writing ghost stories--Ghost Stories and How to Write Them by Kathleen McCurl.

Please Allow me to Re-Introduce Myself Blogfest and Jessica Bell's The Book.

This is a fun blogfest, short and sweet. Brainchild of Stephen Tremp, Mark Koopmans, Elise Fallson and C.M.Brown. It is refreshing to read an optimistic spin on blogging, seeing there is a 'blogging is a waste of time' movement gathering impetus as some find facebook, twitter etc a much quicker way to connect with people. Sure, blogging is a time commitment, but to me and many others, worth it, as long as you don't try to blog too much!

Click on the above badge to join up, read more entries...

To re-introduce myself--I've been blogging since 2008, very long lived in this virtual world. I've made so many blogging friends in that time, met some in person, and hope to meet more. 

When I started blogging, I had no idea what I was doing, so have made many changes to my blog/s as I've discovered who I am in this blogging world.

There are many posts telling you what you should blog about, who should blog and that unpublished novelists shouldn't even bother, but I think there's a lot more to blogging than that--to your own self be true on this one...

When I joined blogger, I was a short story, non-fiction and travel writer...over the years I've been morphing into a writer of novella and novel-length fiction. I'm about to submit my first fully-completed novel, Fijian Princess, to Harlequin.  

I founded RomanticFridayWriters with Francine Howarth (who is mainly found on fb these days), and now co-host with Donna Hole. This is a great way to keep writing fiction--flash fiction--from which many a full-length novel has been birthed. Every month there is a new challenge afoot, open to all! Check out our latest challenge in the right sidebar!

Did you get the message? I love blogging and meeting new bloggers and learning so much from everyone! Thank you bloggers!!

• Now tell me about why you're a blogger...I LOVE to hear other's stories...

And to back up my words, I'd like you to check out the latest from Aussie author, Jessica Bell:

Ever wondered how a five-year-old girl perceives the world? Then you definitely need to get your hands on THE BOOK, a novella by Jessica Bell.

Check out these awesome reviews:

"Jessica Bell’s surprising risks with language capture a child’s clear vision in a world of adult heartbreak. Indelible. Courageous." ~Thaisa Frank, author of Heidegger's Glasses and Enchantment

"THE BOOK is both heartwarming and heartbreaking. It's going to rip your blood pump out of your chest, kick it around like a football, and then shove it back inside you, leaving you with a potently reinvigorated faith in humanity. A curiously captivating read that somehow manages to encapsulate the length and breadth of love and family in one slim volume." ~Josh Donellan, author of Zeb and the Great Ruckus

Here's the blurb:

This book is not The Book. The Book is in this book. And The Book in this book is both the goodie and the baddie.

Bonnie is five. She wants to bury The Book because it is a demon that should go to hell. Penny, Bonnie’s mother, does bury The Book, but every day she digs it up and writes in it. John, Bonnie’s father, doesn’t live with them anymore. But he still likes to write in it from time to time. Ted, Bonnie’s stepfather, would like to write in The Book, but Penny won’t allow it.

To Bonnie, The Book is sadness.
To Penny, The Book is liberation.
To John, The Book is forgiveness.
To Ted, The Book is envy.
But The Book in this book isn’t what it seems at all.

If there was one thing in this world you wished you could hold in your hand, what would it be? The world bets it would be The Book.

Intrigued?

Available at all major retailers in e-book and paperback, including Amazon US and Amazon UK.

#AtoZChallenge - BLOGGERS WERE CHILDREN TOO! - F is for Francine (Romancing the Blog) Howarth

Hello! Happy Easter everyone!

Regular followers and visitors to this site will know I'm using BLOGGERS WERE CHILDREN TOO! for my theme this year. I hope you're enjoying reading about bloggers, some you know and some you may not yet know, as they respond to some prompts I sent out. I've been so grateful for their responses as it helped me to get to know them better, admire their stunning cuteness as babes, and delighted me with random facts.

Thank you Adult Bloggers for your heartfelt responses. Thank you readers for visiting my posts. I hope you'll leave a comment and if you'd like to follow the link to my respondents' blogs they'd be delighted to meet you.

Rock on A- Z Challenge. (Visit more posts here).


Yesterday was the delightful Sarah Pearson...

Today:

F is for Francine Howarth (Romancing the Blog)

Francine Howarth age 3 yrs

I WAS BORN IN:  the smallest city in England, UK. It’s a relatively famous Medieval/Georgian town, which oozes history and myth. So what’s its name? WELLS! The title speaks for itself, as in water abounds.

I used to regularly walk the cloisters

As a kid and adult I fed the swans!

Wells is famed for its Cathedral, Bishop’s Palace with moat, beautiful medieval and Georgian buildings, and swans trained to ring a bell when in need of food. Hence the pictures depict the cathedral, the palace moat, the swans and the town square.

The square, the archway, the cathedral and palace moat feature in my historical novel "Infamous Rival".

I GREW UP In Wells: loved the place, loved my home county of Somerset, in particular Exmoor and Lorna Doone country, but ended up living in many places thereafter: Oxford Cotswolds, Wiltshire, Isle of Wight and Jersey. 

MY FAVOURITE HOME WAS IN: I have two, really: where I was born, 

and a house in the Cotswolds. 

Like the queen, when nippy a headscarf beneath hard hat.

MY BEST CHILDHOOD MEMORY IS: an annual picnic, of which every member of the family (extended family) endeavoured to attend one way or another from wherever. But like all happy childhood things, older people pass on, others get married and move on, in the meantime one grows up and the opposite sex somehow takes precedence! ;)

MY WORST CHILDHOOD MEMORY IS: the death of my godfather (35yrs), whom I adored. I was nine. I never met my father because he was a Royal Marine and killed in action one month before I was born.

TODAY I LIVE IN: Pembrokeshire, Wales UK, with hubby No2: a man to die for! Pics of my garden...

PROUDEST WRITER MOMENT:  first publication back in 1994 with Masquerade New York.

RANDOM FACT ABOUT ME:  I once had shares in a publishing company, reviewed books for a famous magazine and owned an equestrian business. So why am I self-publishing historical romance novel/las? Simply because Amazon is leading the field in book outlet terms, and after a few tries at getting back into publishing which took all of two years and long delays re replies etc., and yes, only two rejections, (Mills&Boon & Choc-Lit). Did I care? Not in the least. But after a nine-month and six-month wait for reply I decided I couldn’t be arsed with subbing to publishers. That said I do have a contract with a US publisher and a book coming out in July 2012. Nevertheless, I shall be self-publishing a contemporary romantic suspense within the next week or two via Amazon, which is “part autobiographical in content” but written in fictional context. You can catch me @: http://francinehowarth.blogspot.com and there browse my list of historical romance novellas, and “Love Walked In”: my story!        

I hope you've enjoyed learning more about Francine. Tune in tomorrow for Melissa Ann Goodwin. And I'd appreciate a visit to RomanticFridayWriters (http://romanticfridaywriters.blogspot.com) to read some flash fiction if you have time.