Do you have goals bloghop...share them....Novels, novellas, short stories...

I joined this regular monthly Friday bloghop hosted by Misha Gericke and Beth Fred. The idea is simple. It's to keep us honest about what we hope to achieve in our writing. We post the last Friday of every month. Can you believe it's the last Friday of March today?!?

You're more than welcome to join this bloghop. All you need to do is read and follow the guidelines then SIGN UP HERE...

1) Beth and I Misha will be co-hosts of this list.
2) If you do enter your link into the list, please be supportive of the other entrants.
3) Keep us up to date with how you're doing. Update Day is on the last Friday of every month. Even if you don't think you achieved much or anything, write a quick post to say so. We can't encourage if we don't know. 
4) When you enter your blog's address write your goal as the link title. For example, my link's title will be "earn $7500 per month." Not your name or your blog's. This is so we can keep track of who's doing what. 

I signed up as 'publish a novel and submit short stories' this year.

MY WRITING GOALS for 2016 SO FAR...

MY PARANORMAL ROMANCE NOVELLA, BOOK TWO - The Vendemmia (The Harvest)
I have continued researching for the second in my paranormal romance series to follow Under the Tuscan Moon and the adventures of Vipunin and Cuchulcain. I have tons of notes and have begun structuring the story. My favourite research was on the ancient wine presses used in the 16th Century. 

A basket press from the Provence region of southeast France.

SHORT STORY UPDATE

Well-oh-well. My Paris short story has grown from a 1,000 word flash fiction originally published for #fridayflash. When I picked it up again, it soon grew to 2,000, then 4,000 words and someone offered to translate it into French! Tres exciting! But after sending it off to a critique partner, I received several suggestions on expanding some scenes. They were excellent suggestions. As a result, I now have 12,000 words...no longer a short story by some reckonings, but heading for a 15,000 word novella. Well, will my translator still be interested? I'm so excited. I'm loving how this story is growing.
TRAVELLING AGAIN 中国
So...in late March/early April I am travelling to distant lands. More in my IWSG post next week. When I return to the land of Oz, I will be working on my own little NaAprWriMo again and write every day. Last April I wrote 25,000 words on a Paris Cookery novel and hope to pick it up again as I'm SO EXCITED about this book but haven't been able to get to it for months! But the research has been delicious! So I'm pretty busy. 

Overall, March has been a very successful, wonderful writing month even though we embarked on major renovations at our beach house. Somehow I've clawed more time into my schedule, so maybe this bloghop is helping. Dropping one teaching day has definitely helped.

AIM HIGH
It's always a good idea to set yourself achievable goals, but it's even better to use the turbo power of imagination to help you get there. For example, you may decide that you'd be happy to have your body in better shape. Instead of just thinking: 'I'm going to tone and trim my waistline', bring on the drama. Try rephrasing that into something like: 'I want to turn heads as I walk down the street and wow people when I walk into a room'. Remember, when you use colourful, vibrant imagery it will be easier to achieve your goal and turn your dream into reality.

So...when you dream of your finished story...instead of just wishing you could reach the finish line, add drama. 'I want to write the most riveting, amazing story that people will love so much they will say to everyone in their reviews on Amazon and Goodreads--'You've got to read this story!' Imagine that!

How are you going with your 2016 Writing Goals? Please share in comments below or join the hop.

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. 

Amazon reviews--how they help sales.

 LET’S chat ABOUT… AMAZON REVIEWS

I came across an article on Hello...Chick Lit which got me thinking about  Amazon reviews. I vaguely knew reviewing an author's works on Amazon had more value than reviewing them on my blog or on Goodreads, but hey, how many hours are in the day? Many authors won't ask directly for an Amazon review because of the Amazon Review Police who stalk the highways and byways of the digital world, but here are some reasons to help each other out!

I've recently self-published on Amazon Kindle Select for the first time with my novella, Under the Tuscan Moon, and am not setting myself up as an expert on Amazon reviews or anything at all regarding publishing or promoting. I’m just sharing a small part of what I’ve learnt in hopes that it will help both authors and readers.

Have you ever sent bloggers and/or other friends a free copy of your book and asked them to read it then leave a review on Amazon? I have. I was secretly hoping they'd love it and would post a review. They told me they loved it, but the loving didn't extend to an Amazon review (yet) for most. I understand this. Authors often send me PDFs of their books and because my TBR list is ginormous, I've not even gotten around to reading them all, let alone reviewing. That's a pity. Since learning how important Amazon reviews can be, I've been upping my Kindle reading of bloggers' books and posting more Amazon reviews. (If you've sent me a copy of your book, send me an email and remind me that you're still waiting for that review and I'll send you to the top of the list!) 

Blog Tours

booksandsuch.com

Most of us gladly participate when someone has a new book coming out and asks us to help spread the word. It introduces people to the book and the author. The 'To buy' link might even lead to a sale or two if the planets align. Really, anything that gets eyes on a book is good.

I review my reads on Goodreads because every year I participate in their reading challenge. (I read/reviewed 120+ books in 2015). You need over 10 reviews on Goodreads to be able to add your book/s to certain groups which gives you more exposure. I went off reviewing on Amazon when they took down some of my reviews of blogger friends' books. But we can’t let that stop us. Amazon reviews can impact sales rankings, so is the most useful thing we can do for our blogger/author friends if their book is available to buy on Amazon. (And fingers crossed they won't take it down).

Unless you're in the upper echelons, chances are you spent more on getting your book out there than you will ever recoup, especially if you self-publish. That’s a crying shame. There are LOADS of amazing books out there with way too few sales because people don’t know how good they are. Who is going to scroll to Page 500 to find a book? Some amazing books could be discovered if readers could take 10 minutes to write something—it doesn’t have to be long—that would be so helpful to the author's rankings and 'discoverability'. 

So if you follow a blog tour, do that author a favour--buy their book (usually cheaper than a cup of joe), find some time to read it (sure, this is the hardest part), then, for that author's sake, REVIEW IT!! Even if you don't like it THAT much, you can still review it. You don't have to give it 5 stars!!! I'm loath to say this, but apparently even a bad review is better than no review! It still ticks the algorithm boxes!

IMAGE: chronicallyme.com

Why are Amazon reviews important?

Well, duh! More sales = higher rankings.  If your book is selling, it goes higher on the list. And reviews help sell books.

Verified Purchase reviews will count MORE towards the rankings of Amazon sales. 

But that doesn’t mean you can’t leave a review for a book you didn’t buy through Amazon.

Reviews with ‘likes’ count more towards rankings and *algorithms. (If you like the techie details, read the section at the end).

So if you read a review that you like – hit the ‘like’ button!  Not only does it help the reviewer’s Amazon review stats but it helps the author with a ‘higher ranking review’.

Amazon supposedly recommends books different ways based on the number of reviews.

20-25 reviews: Amazon will include your book in the ‘Others also bought’ section and the ‘You might like’ section.

50-70 reviews: Amazon may highlight the book in spotlight ads and possibly include your book in newsletters.

100+ reviews: Amazing promo results for authors (it is said).

Is it just reviews that help? Who really knows? But anything that helps an author up their rankings is a good thing. And we can all help this happen.

• Getting your book out there into the eyes of readers will help sell books.
• Building your author platform and engaging with readers and bloggers will sell books.
• Great writing with great content will sell books.

And Amazon reviews matter.  They take 5 - 10 minutes to write. An author would prefer a quick review to no review. Do something amazing for your blogger/author friends.

• How many reviews does your book have on Amazon?
• How did you get those reviews?
• What is the most successful part of your Author Platform?
• Share with us!

And if you're up for another Valentine's writing challenge, WEP's Valentine's challenge goes live from Feb 17-19...flash fiction, non-fiction, poetry, photos, art...we're open to all! Please join us! You can sign up right here in my sidebar under the big red picture!

 AMAZON REVIEWS: AMAZON REVIEWS: AMAZON REVIEWS: AMAZON REVIEWS

The Goodreads 2015 Reading Challenge - what have you been reading?

Hi friends!

I finally got all the glitches sorted and have signed up for the year's reading challenge. I've made a fine start in January, reading a heap of books already while on holidays. Of course, not all are on Goodreads, so I've only been able to add 10 so far. You can click here if you'd like to see what I've been reading...I hope they'll let you view it.

I also started the year by re-reading for the gazillionth time my favourite book of all time, Beach Music by Pat Conroy. This book is a love poem to two different cultures--that of Rome and North Carolina. I'm thrilled by Conroy's deft laying out of the treads of his characters' lives, then drawing these threads together like a professional fisherman. The humour is black as you'd expect in a book that examines death close up and personal experiences of the Holocaust and the heartbreaking results of lives lived in dread. When do you stop being affected by past terrors? Conroy's view is you don't...you pass them onto your children...with devastating results. Not exactly light reading, none of Conroy's books are (think Prince of Tides), but each time I read it I'm shaken, inspired and fall in love with Rome all over again.

Another book I just added to Goodreads is The Paris Book, after the style of the New York Book etc. A huge coffee table book with wonderful photography of Parisian landmarks and lots of history to accompany them. Has been one of my Paris research books as I dig deeper into the City of Light as I begin writing my chick-lit set in Paris.

Thanks for stopping by!

• What have you been reading?

I Swear I'm Telling the Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth...

Well, it's time for me to 'fess up and let you know the answers to the seven questions from the Creative Writer Blogger Award. Some bright sparks did guess the ONE true thing I posted.

Around the World in 80 Days

1. I really love to travel as Francine knows, so that may have been behind her guessing #1 as a truth. Sure, I'd love to go around the world in 80 days, but not like those krazy klutzes from the movie did - oversized goggles, biggles hats, balloons etc. Sorry Francine! 

2. Laura and Jules played along with #2, but Clarissa was really hopeful...ha de ha.

Good... Morning Vietnam!

3.L Diane Wolfe and Jai Joshi and Terry Stonecrop thought #3 might be the truth and I'd like to go to Vietnam to shout 'Good morning Vietnam!' and why not? Trouble is I have my baby daughter trekking Vietnam from North to South and I'm worried witless, so Vietnam was kinda on my mind. No, I'll leave the shout out to Robin Williams. Hmm, maybe I will do that one day, kinda the truth...let's get Candice home safely first!

My daughter's doing this...

While I am doing this...

4. Absolutely no-one was fazed by #4. North Pole/South Pole - too much of a stretch, or a mush or what!

5. Summer and Secret Writer went for #5 - why not? It's one of the coolest! Sadly, all my research on Antarctica comes from books/internet. But it would be very cool to go one day. Maybe one really hot summer in Australia - oh, that's every summer.

This is where most of the action takes place in Twilight - or so it seems...

6. Funny, not even a whiff of a suggestion that Twilight is my favourite series. For those who have friended me on goodreads, you may have noticed me saying I've started reading them. Hey, I've got through the first two, now I'm heading for Eclipse! I thought seeing as I'm a writer/teacher/mother I should see what all the fuss is about and try to work out why Stephanie Meyer has been uber successful. I think part of the secret is heaps of dialogue and Bella's POV, which keeps the action going at a cracking pace. I'm totally sick of her whining, getting cut, looking for danger etc etc, but I totally get why this series has been a money spinner. Hey, but you're right, I don't even like reading about vampires/werewolves/zombies and whatever other monsters are lurking out there, so Twilight can never be my favourite series.

7. The Words Crafter, Helen Ginger and Francine (yes, you did!) really thought this movie segment from Apocolypse Now was the truth. I must confess - YOU ARE RIGHT! Must be, as I'm at #7! I know it's cruel, and American POV, but it does show beauty juxtaposed with the humour and cruelty and I just LOVE the images of the helicopters with Wagner's soaring music. I don't think the movie glorifies the Americans, just the opposite, and remember, the Aussies fought in this beastly war too. Thanks, Francine, for thinking this couldn't possibly be true, but IT IS! I'll say no more, but I hope I don't get a bundle of hate mail, or I'll be saying:

'I love the smell of disillusionment in the morning!

'Heck, this post took longer than the original. Thank you for playing along. I hope I got all the names/choices right!

Oh, and while we're on the American theme, Nick Thomas, thank you for the list of Bill Clinton lies/truths. Woh, he's such a role model! As I'm a tad political, I'll reprint them so others who missed this jewel of a list can have a crack at guessing which of Bill's quotes are the truth according to the Gospel of Bill:

1. I have never lied in my life.
2. I did not have sex with that woman.
3. Hillary makes my toes curl.
4. Hillary makes my toenails drop off.
5. Chelsea is honest, beautiful, faithful, and adopted.
6. I have no regrets, and sleep well at night - on the couch.
7. Obama is the greatest president since Nixon.

Geesh, I must admit I'm flummoxed. None of them could possibly be true, could they?

Pop down and replay #7! Da, da, da, da....