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emaginings: Romance Boxed Sets

October 17, 2013 by in category The Romance Journey by Linda Mclaughlin tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,

Life has been pretty hectic since I started down the self-published road.  I am so impressed at the energy and innovation I’m seeing in the indie author community. But now that I’m a publisher as well as a writer, it seems there’s always something to do and not enough time for everything.

My latest project was to get involved in one of the popular e-book boxed sets we see popping up at Amazon and other online retailers. I was fortunate to team up with a bunch of knowledgeable and savvy indie writers, and we published the Romance Super Bundle in late September. Our fearless leader, Amy Gamet, has been the driving force behind the project. She also created the gorgeous 3-D cover.

My contribution to the bundle is my historical romance, Rogue’s Hostage. We priced the boxed set at $5.99, but it’s currently on sale for 99 cents. We still hope it will hit one of the big lists like USA Today.

On Oct. 7, we had a dynamite Facebook Launch Party guided by the dynamic and extremely organized Wendy Ely. It was attended by a lively bunch of readers, and the messages were flying fast at times. (It was all this old broad could do to keep up.) The event page is still available if anyone wants to see what we did.

Today, one of the authors, Lois Winston, is at Inkspot where she discusses this new way I’m thinking outside the promotional box, and does it more coherently than I can. I like her analogy of promotion being like “shouting into a tsunami” though I tend to think of it more as a lone voice crying in the wilderness.

At the same time, I’m still working on re-issuing my back list. In the last week, my werewolf novella, Ilona’s Wolf: A Fairy Tale Romance, was published at Amazon and Barnes and Noble, just in time for Halloween.

Blurb:
 

Imagine a world filled with magic, a tormented knight, a damsel in distress, an evil sorcerer…

While picking herbs in the woods, Princess Ilona is rescued from a woodsman by a wolf. When the creature licks her wounds, it is suddenly transformed into a man. A very handsome, very naked man who makes passionate love to her in a glade. She has dreamed of a handsome knight to aid her cause, but a werewolf?

Cursed by an evil wizard, Rolf was trapped in wolf form until he tasted the blood of a royal. Now he must escort the princess on a hazardous journey back to the castle to stop an ill-fated wedding and face the evil wizard who placed the evil curse on Rolf.

Passion flares between them, but both know there is no future for a princess and a werewolf. Or is there? In a world where magic and passion combine, anything may be possible.

(Previously published by Amber Quill Press)

The beautiful cover was designed by Carey Abbott of Safari Heat.

What is keeping you busy and energized these days?

Linda McLaughlin / Lyndi Lamont




 
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OCC’s Birthday Bash

October 6, 2013 by in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as ,

Next weekend is OCC’s Birthday Bash! 

I’ll be there, although only on Saturday.  Because of other time commitments, I can’t attend the pajama party or stay overnight.  But I’m really looking forward to it. 

The speakers and guests this year sound absolutely great!  You can see some of the info on the post below this one.  Plus, getting together with OCC members is always fun. 

Hope to see you there!

Linda O. Johnston
http://www.lindaojohnston.com/
http://www.killerhobbies.blogspot.com/
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emaginings: Social Media, the Brain and Creativity

September 16, 2013 by in category The Romance Journey by Linda Mclaughlin tagged as , , , , ,

Yesterday’s meeting was informative and lots of fun. I missed Melissa Cutler’s morning workshop on “Making Grammar \work for your Voice” to attend PAW, but heard good things about it afterwards. 

Afternoon speaker Catherine Bybee joined us in PAW for a spirited discussion of publishing and social media. One thing she said struck me as problematic, for me. She said we should share about our lives at Facebook as a way to engage readers. But my life is so boring. Debra Holland told me later that was my choice, and she’s right. I prefer drama in my books, not my house, so living a quiet life is just fine with me. But it doesn’t make for fun anecdotes on Facebook & Twitter, like the ones I see about people’s kids and pets. So it’s my challenge to find a way to be interesting on social media. 
I’ll get the chance soon.I’ve joined a group of ten indie authors to publish a boxed set of our works and we’re going to do a launch party at Facebook. So I can report on that next month. 
In the meantime, I have signed up for Susan and Harry Squires online workshop on “Talking Back to Your Brain”. Now, I have zero time for a class, but this sounds like a good opportunity to get my head straight about some things.Plus I know the class will be great because I’ve taken classes from Susan and Harry before. But keeping up will be another challenge. I do hope it will help me to focus better. As you can see from this post, I’m feeling just a little scattered.
Speaking of the brain, I read a fascinating article recently at the Buffer blog on Why We’re More Creative When We’re Tired and 9 Other Surprising Facts About How Our Brains Work by Belle Beth Cooper. Several of these facts are useful to writers, including the fact that no one can really multitask. Our brains aren’t doing two things at once. Rather, the brain is jumping from one task to another at the fastest possible speed. Not the most efficient way to work. 
I had begun to figure that out for myself, but the internet makes multitasking so appealing. I can open multiple tabs in my browser and jump from one to the other. I start with my email, then, oh, here’s an interesting blog post, and there’s something good to tweet, so I open Twitter, or more likely Buffer, and pretty soon I’ve got seven tabs open to different websites. Yikes. I do close the internet before I start writing. I may be dumb but I’m not that dumb. I do make plenty of mistakes, though.
Which brings up another surprising fact. People who make mistakes are better liked. Maybe that’s why everyone is so fascinated when an icon falls. Hah, she wasn’t so perfect, after all.
Naps help us remember better and meditation can rewire the brain for less anxiety and more creativity. I plan to take more naps, as best I can since I’m a night owl who has enough trouble sleeping at night, much less during the day. And meditation needs to be squeezed in more frequently. If only there were a way to add more time to the day. Oh, wait, there’s something in there about a way to trick our brains into thinking time is going more slowly. That’s a little too much for me to process, but this is a very interesting article.
For those of you not familiar with Buffer, it’s an online and smart phone/table app that helps you to schedule social media postings throughout the day. I can access it from my computer or the iPad. It’s like TweetDeck and HootSuite in that regard, but Buffer doesn’t try to manage you account. Just helps you buffer, i.e., schedule postings throughout the day. It’s very simple to use and the Twitter analytics are helpful. The basic level is free, but someday I may “Go Awesome” and upgrade to the $10 a month plan. They also have an awesome blog with lots of informative and helpful articles.
(Note: No one at Buffer is paying me for this endorsement. I’m just seriously impressed by this app. FWIW, I have not tried TweetDeck or HootSuite, so cannot make a fair comparison.)
Do you use a program to manage your social media platforms? What do you recommend?
Linda
My social media contacts:
Twitter: @LyndiLamont https://twitter.com/LyndiLamont
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Computer Issues

September 6, 2013 by in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as , , ,

For anyone who’s my Facebook friend or reads my Killer Hobbies blog, you know I’ve had some computer issues over the past couple of weeks. The upshot is that first my Internet access, and then a couple of my computers, crashed. Why? Malware!

I had to take my main desktop computer and one of my laptops to technicians to diagnose and fix. Turned out that we had to replace the hard drive on my desktop, and although the technician couldn’t figure out how the malware had affected my laptop, his working to diagnose it apparently solved the problem.

Some of you have undoubtedly experienced this. I have, too, on a much more limited basis. But a writer, these days, without access to a computer? What misery! And it lasted for several days.

Yes, I back things up. And even beyond that, although the technicians didn’t reinstall all the programs on my desktop, they somehow were able to save all the data–although I have to hunt for it. And I’m so untechie that it’s a real hunt.

So… my wish for all of you is that you never, ever, experience anything like this.

Oh, except for those out there who create viruses and malware and the like to harm people’s computers and think it’s fun and funny. Instead, I wish the absolute worst of such stuff, an incurable virus or whatever, on every computer you ever attempt to use.

How about you–has your computer ever gotten ill with a virus or worse?

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WHAT DOES ROMANCE MATTER?

August 27, 2013 by in category Guest Posts, Spotlight tagged as , , ,

 Why does the romance genre dominate book sales?  It’s a question that dozens of people have tried to answer.  On Valentine’s Day, article after article attempts to explore the concept.  Non-fiction books are written about it, essays are printed.  Internet sites Chat about it.


The truth is there is no single answer.

From the time we’re teenagers, we’re thinking about finding a mate.  When we’re old and alone, our spouse long gone, we’re remembering the romantic days when we fell in love, the days we spent with someone who loved us.

From the start, it’s a journey fraught with perils.  Today, with people living in cities, the odds of finding the right mate are mind-boggling.  Thousands of bars and restaurants, millions of people all searching for someone.  People turn to Internet dating to improve their chances of finding a person with the same interests…someone they might have a chance to love.

The same journey happens in a Romance novel and it’s fraught with even more peril.  As the reader turns the pages, for a brief time, he or she gets to feel all the wonderful emotions a man or woman feels when they fall in love. 

In my latest book, AGAINST THE MARK, the nineth in my AGAINST series, Tyler Brodie, a private investigator, meets Haley Warren, the woman who hires him to find the truth about her father’s murder.  The child of a broken home, Haley has no interest in romance.  She doesn’t believe in happy endings. 


But Ty is a hard man to resist.  Carefree and fun-loving on the surface, Ty is ex-military, a man who knows how to handle himself in a tough situation.  A man nearly irresistible to women.  Ty wants Haley, and it doesn’t take long for her to realize that she wants him.  But Haley is afraid to risk her heart.  It takes nearly getting killed before Haley realizes that love is worth the risk.

The best part about reading a Romance is that from the very first page, the reader secretly knows that whatever perils the couple faces, whatever suffering they endure, will be worth it.

Because by the last page of the book, the lovers are going to get the happy ending they deserve, the forever kind of love we all dream of finding.

I hope you’ll watch for Ty and Haley in AGAINST THE MARK, out August 27th.  And in June of next year watch for Ty’s cousin, Dylan Brodie, in AGAINST THE WILD, the first of three Against books set in Alaska.
What is your favorite romance genre?

Till then very best wishes and happy reading.  

 Kat 

Visit my website www.katmartin.com. Or join my Facebook page.  

P.S. One lucky commenter will win a copy of AGAINST THE MARK (winner’s choice of Nook, Kindle or paperback). Comments must be made before midnight August 27, 2013 and the winner must live in the United States. 






New York Times bestselling author Kat Martin is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara where she majored in Anthropology and also studied History.   Before she started writing in 1985, Kat was a real estate broker.  During that time she met her husband, L.J. Martin, author of thirty western, non-fiction, historical, and suspense novels.  A resident of Missoula, Montana, Kat and her husband spend their winters in Ventura, California.  She is a currently writing her next Romantic Suspense.  

With fifty five novels to her credit and more than fifteen million copies of her books in print, Ms. Martin has been published in twenty-one foreign countries including France, Japan, Greece, Argentina, Russia, Sweden, Turkey, China, and Spain.

Book Trailer Video: http://katbooks.com/AgainsttheMark.htm#VIDEO

RT Book Reviews 4.5 Star Review: http://katbooks.com/AgainsttheMarkRTBookReviews.htm

Excerpt : http://katbooks.com/AgainstheMarkExcerpt1.htm

Purchase Links:
Amazon
BN
Indiebound

  
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