October featured author is Jina Bacarr.
I discovered early on that I inherited the gift of the gab from my large Irish family when I penned a story about a princess who ran away to Paris with her pet turtle Lulu. I was twelve. I grew up listening to their wild, outlandish tales and it was those early years of storytelling that led to my love of history and traveling.
I enjoy writing to classical music with a hot cup of java by my side. I adore dark chocolate truffles, vintage anything, the smell of bread baking and rainy days in museums. I’ve always loved walking through history—from Pompeii to Verdun to Old Paris.
The voices of the past speak to me through carriages with cracked leather seats, stiff ivory-colored crinolines, and worn satin slippers. I’ve always wondered what it was like to walk in those slippers when they were new.
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Everyone here at A Slice of Orange is excited about Jina’s newest novel, Christmas Once Again. Publication is scheduled for October 10th, but you can use the links below to pre-order the book.
On a cold December day in 1955, Kate Arden got on a train to go home for Christmas.
This is the story of what happened when she got off that train. In 1943.
In 1943 Kate Arden was engaged to the man she loved, Jeffrey Rushbrooke. She was devastated and heartbroken when he was called up for wartime duty and later killed on a secret mission in France.
But what if Kate could change that? What if she could warn him and save his life before Christmas?
Or will fate have a bigger surprise in store for her?
Christmas Once Again is a sweeping, heartbreakingly romantic novel—it’s one woman’s chance to follow a different path and mend her broken heart…
Great question. The idea that you are asking this sort of question suggests that you are in the business of writing–not every writer is. Business is important to writers, but often they do not like to think about the business side of creativity. You are thinking about business and that indicates that you have a good chance at making significant money from your creative craft. Part of being in business is protecting your intellectual properties. Before you decide how to best protect your tagline, you need to talk to a lawyer who handles this kind of specialized legal business and can explain the difference between copyrights, trademarks, and patents. Before you talk to that qualified lawyer, you need to gather your information together. The process of gathering your information together will help you find the path you should follow. When you find a potential lawyer, that legal professional will want for you to provide a solid overview of your business concern.
Find the answers to the following questions and you will have a better meet-and-greet with the lawyer during your first consultation.
Your lawyer will ask you these questions:
Here are questions for you to ask the lawyer:
This is above my pay grade. You might want to ask an entertainment lawyer. The person I asked suggested it might be a trademark situation.
US copyright law does not cover tag lines. Short phrases or sentences are not considered original creative work as that would run the risk of actually copyrighting a phrase or word common in the English language. Just imagine what you’d have to pay Nike every time you told your kids to ‘just do it’. And how would anyone enforce that anyway? Maybe big brother has that many eyes but individuals don’t.
You can Trade Mark a tag line. Marketers often do. Be sure you can live with a TM beside your tag line. It’s not something I’ve ever seen but I think it would strike me as officious and send an odd message. Writing is a creative effort as well as a business effort but I don’t want to see overt signs of business in my reading for pleasure choices. Besides, a Trade Mark requires mountains of paperwork and the near impossibility of enforcement.
Take the pain out of writing three simple paragraphs. Arm yourself with the weapons of creativity needed to grab a reader’s attention and drag them between the covers of your book.
Get the inside scoop on what a reader wants/expects/needs from about a hundred and fifty words on the back of your book. Not self-publishing? No worries, use your great story description in a query letter instead! Show off your writing chops in a very special way. Give the agent you’re querying concrete evidence that you know how to sell your book.
Bio: Presenter Kathryn Jane writes the popular Intrepid Women Series. Novels filled with mystery, suspense, adventure, psychic abilities, and romance. Think MacGyver, Criminal Minds, and James Bond . . . with a dash of I Love Lucy. Kickass women and the men who dare to love them.
Cost:
MCRW Members: $15
RWA Members: $25
Non-RWA Members: $35
To register: https://mcrw.com/october-online-workshop
Workshop runs from October 1 to October 31
I’m back with another Quarter Days’ post about Michaelmas
True Janeites (fans of Jane Austen) might be interested in a fun website I stumbled across while researching a story I have in the works.
The “Chronology of Pride and Prejudice, according to MacKinnon and Chapman” takes us through the detailed timeline of P&P’s events. (Oh, to be such a renowned author that fans prepare a chronology for your novel.) I don’t know about my fellow A Slice of Orange authors, but I always have to check and double-check that I have the story days correct.
Pride and Prejudice begins when Mr. Bingley takes the lease to Netherfield Manor and moves in.
As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, Quarter Days might be occasions for feasting and parties, but they also had a commercial significance. Contracts were entered into or terminated, property was leased, and rents and wages were paid. Thus, as the story begins, a wealthy bachelor in need of a wife kicks off the story by becoming a neighbor of Mr. Bennet, a man with five unmarried daughters.
And Mr. Bingley has been kind enough to bring along an even richer bachelor friend! Well of course; late summer/early autumn was also the start of hunting season, when a man might welcome parties of friends to tramp through his fields and shoot birds. Mr. Bingley would want to show off his new domain to his influential friend, Mr. Darcy.
Hunting season started on the Glorious Twelfth of August, after the social and parliamentary season ended. Presumably farmers had finished the harvest, so the crops were safe from hordes of hunters.
Bird season began a bit later, in September running through October. Hunting in Britain was very much dominated by the elites, even during periods of economic downturn and food scarcity. Ownership of weapons and even dogs was restricted, and penalties for poaching might include transportation. (See my post about this topic.)
Autumn was prime house party season also because families had shipped off their young males to boarding school in time for the Michaelmas term. No young boys would be running about distracting the shooters or worse, accidentally shooting themselves in the foot. They’d be back home though for the next Quarter Day, Christmas, which is when I’ll return to A Slice of Orange. See you then!
For more about Michaelmas, take a look at my earlier posts: Michaelmas Goose, and A Michaelmas Menu.
Yearning
I glisten in tears
like an April dawn,
covered in dew
like blades of grass,
whispering notes
like softly falling raindrops,
I call your name
like one who is lost –
listen achingly for the sound
of your answering call.
© Neetu Malik
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Not all fairy tales are as they appear.
More info →Alexandra “Alex” Miller and her best friends are more like sisters. They live by the code that a good girlfriend will stick by you and be honest with you not matter what.
More info →A Slice of Orange is an affiliate with some of the booksellers listed on this website, including Barnes & Nobel, Books A Million, iBooks, Kobo, and Smashwords. This means A Slice of Orange may earn a small advertising fee from sales made through the links used on this website. There are reminders of these affiliate links on the pages for individual books.
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