12 Authors, 12 Stories, One Book

In September, 2014, Hypothetical Press, will release their first anthology, READING GLASSES – Stories Through an Unpredictable Lens.

It is a new collection of speculative short fiction by Bruce Capoferri, John Farquhar, Gregg Feistman, Christine L. Hardy, J. Keller Ford, K.A. Magrowski, Ray Rebmann, Randy Ribay, J.J. Steinfeld, Rich Voza, Jessica A. Walsh. and Neal Wooten.

Well-known author, blogger and member of the South Jersey Writer’s Group, Marie Gilbert, has already conducted some interviews with the authors that you can read here.

If you look really hard in that long list of authors, you’ll find moi. Yep, my short story, THE PASSING OF MILLIE HUDSON, will appear in this anthology, and I couldn’t be happier. Aaaaannnd, since I’m jobless at the moment, and have nothing better to do with my time than write and do stuff related to writing, I made a simple freebie book trailer for Millie Hudson over at Animoto. Here’s a looksie:

As soon as the anthology goes live on Goodreads, I’ll let you all know. In the meantime, feel free to click around Hypothetical Press’ website, and connect with them on Twitter and Facebook.

Dragon Flight is almost here!

Oh my gosh, I can’t control the squeals of delight! First, I get an e-mail from my publisher that the print books of the ONE MORE DAY anthology have been approved by the distributor and the paperbacks will start showing up soon. While I had another short story, The Amulet of Ormisez, published last year, it was only available in e-book format only (Kindle / Nook). This year, ONE MORE DAY, and my short story, Dragon Flight, will be available in print and e-book! I am soooo happy I can’t stand it!

Secondly, I saw the purchase link for the paperback on Amazon!

I just can’t believe it. I’ll actually have something to sign. Something I can touch and give to others who don’t have e-readers. This is such a glorious thing to me.

I’m also very excited to promote this anthology because there are several authors debuting in this work and I’m so happy for them. It is an incredible feeling knowing a publisher thought highly enough of your work to take a chance on it and publish it. There are no words that can express how thrilled I am for these new authors. They all have intriguing stories to tell in ONE MORE DAY, and I’m honored to be appearing along with each of them. (Psst…just to let you know, there is one author who is still in her teen years. How awesome is that!).

I will be posting a blog tour schedule soon so you can keep up with all the shenanigans we’re all doing. I’ve also got a great line-up starting December 1 and running through Jan. 2, 2014 of author guest posts and interviews, etc. You’ll also find other authors I’m promoting during the month of December and I’m über excited to help them out as well.

I hope you stay tuned for all the fun, interviews, guest posts, and giveaways of ONE MORE DAY. Share the word. Spread the joy. And thank you for your loyalty and friendship. I, we, couldn’t do any of this without our readers, fans and loyal following. You guys are the best. Thank you for everything.

ARC Review: One More Day by L.S. Murphy and Various Authors (kookiekrysp.com)

What did you Make Believe as a child? Tell Vanessa and you may win an Amazon gift card

When you were little, what did you Make Believe? Did you ever pretend to be anyone other than you? Did you ever sing into a fork or a spoon in your bedroom and pretend you were a rock star? Did you ever pretend to be married to your favorite actor/actress? Did you ever play an air guitar?

This was one of the questions Vanessa Chapman asked of Jennifer M. Eaton, J.A. Belfield and me during an interview for the Make Believe blog tour. You can find all the intimate details here. And, if you leave an interesting/funny/sparkling comment on Vanessa’s post by 11pm (GMT) on Friday 28 December, you may just win an Amazon gift card.

Make Believe Blog Tour: A Interview with Contributing Author, J.A. Belfield (rebeccahartwriting.wordpress.com)
Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown! (chroniclebooks.com)

Giveaway Alert!

I just received some fantastic news! My publisher, J. Taylor Publishing, is hosting a giveaway for the MAKE BELIEVE anthology! In case you don’t know, this e-anthology features my short story, THE AMULET OF ORMISEZ!

If you’re a book blogger reviewer and are interested in snagging a copy for your review stacks, please click HERE for the details on how you can enter to win a copy of the e-anthology. 8-)

You don’t want to miss this chance to read and review before everyone else. It’s a GREAT antho. It is. Really. 🙂

Make Believe, the Anthology (kellysaid.com)

website up and running…now all I need is domain name

Well, it’s not exactly my ideal website but it is pretty, it has some cool stuff, like a game (in the “Extras” section), and it was free. Would love to hear your thoughts so head on over and tell me what you think. You can find it here.

Also, I avoided a potential copyright issue last night. See, I found a picture of a dragon on Wiki and, after reading the Terms of Use, Licensing, and Privacy sections, it seemed as if I was okay to use the picture. Just to be sure, I contacted the artist to get his permission. This is something I usually do anyway, but didn’t in this case. Something gnawed at me while a friend and I were trying to ‘edit’ the pic, so I e-mailed the artist. I’m glad I did because he asked me to NOT use the pics as there is no way to keep people from copying and distributing what they want, when they want. As an artist, I accepted his request and chose not to use the photo. I also took it down off my blog (it was my green dragon picture) so as to avoid any future issues.

Lesson: always use your own pictures, pictures you’ve purchased, pictures licensed to you through sites like 123rf or get the artist’s permission. If you don’t have any of those in place…don’t use the picture on your website or blog. It could cost you tons of money in the end.

Enjoy your Sunday. 🙂

The Difference Between .com, .net, .org and Why We’re About To See Many More Top-Level Domains (howtogeek.com)

And the marketing begins

I cannot believe the MAKE BELIEVE anthology releases 90 days from today. It just boggles my mind. What boggles my mind even more is the amount of marketing that needs to be done.

I have never been one for tooting my own horn so all of this is so new and foreign to me. It seems so selfish, so egotistical to say ‘Hey, hey, check out my book and please buy it.” I’m much more comfortable promoting other people’s books and touting their successes. That’s not to say I don’t believe in my work or that I’m not proud of it. It’s just weird to put myself in the spotlight.

Which is why I’m asking YOU, my lovely fellow bloggers, to put me (and all the other amazing authors appearing in the anthology, if you would like) in YOUR spotlight. 🙂 I don’t bite, at least not hard, and I never leave marks. I also would love to get my feet wet with a blog tour.

If you have participated in a blog tour, either as host or author, I would love to hear from you with pointers about what you learned and how to make the event run smoothly. What would you have done differently if you could have?

For those interested in hosting the blog tour, I put a huge page on my website and would love for you to check it out under the News and Events page.

As I am not one to abuse a favor, if you are a YA and/or Fantasy author who would like to trade promotional efforts, I’m all game. I’ve done author interviews, character interviews, and book reviews on blog tours, and I’ll be more than happy to help you get the word out about your novel or short story.

What do you say? Up for the adventure?

Look! Look at what I got in the mail today!!

Okay, I said I wasn’t going to post anything this week but…

Look what I got today in the mail!!!!!

Bookmarks! Aren’t they pretty!!! Something I can actually sign my name to and give away to awesome people like you! Squeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!

Who’s ready for December 3? Who’s ready for “MAKE BELIEVE”?

Look for bookmark giveaways soon. Maybe within the next 6 months or so I can match it with bookmarks for IN THE SHADOW OF THE DRAGON KING. That would be IN-CRED-I-BLE!!!. *SMILE*

Okay, back to editing. Catch you guys on the flip side. *hugs*