Monday 21 October 2013

A Jersey Kiss - Freebies

A Jersey Kiss is FREE today (Tuesday 22nd) and tomorrow (Wednesday 23rd) over at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, so please feel free to download your copy - and if you enjoy reading it I'd be delighted if you could give me a review on Amazon.

If that wasn't excitement enough for me, I'm thrilled to tell you that A Jersey Kiss is also featured over at the fantastic, E Reader Perks site today!


Another freebie:

To celebrate these two free days leading up to the launch of the paperback for A Jersey Kiss next week, I'm giving away an A Jersey Kiss pen to someone who has been generous enough to:

- retweet my Tweets mentioning the freebies from @GeorginaTroy
- share one of my status' from my Facebook page, or,
- leave a comment below.

Thanks for taking part!


Sunday 20 October 2013

The Cheesecake Queen Blitz


I'm thrilled to be a part of todays blitz for The Cheesecake Queen by Miranda P Koerner for Fiction Addiction Book Tours - this book  both looks and sounds very tempting...
   
 



 

 
Release date 21st November

  

Sugar Rule 1: Christmas is the perfect time for cheesecake.

Sugar Rule 2: Men are as useful as burnt cookies.

 
After losing her reporting job to layoffs at the local paper, Caeleah Turner’s pity party at the airport is interrupted by a woman claiming to know the location of the world’s best cheesecake. Intrigued, Caeleah trades plane tickets with the woman and finds herself in Chestnut, Colorado, a tiny town hiding a woman known as the Cheesecake Queen. The Cheesecake Queen not only bakes the best cheesecakes in the country, but her cheesecake is known to cure everything from infertility to baldness—one woman even loses 100 pounds on it! There is a thick batter of secrets behind The Cheesecake Queen and her two sisters, who operate all the bakeries in town.


But as the mayor’s efforts to shut down the Sugar sisters before Christmas gear up, Caeleah finds herself wanting to sample his own treats.

 
There’s a bigger secret than love to Cinnamon’s cheesecakes. And Caeleah is determined to find out what it is.
 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Miranda Koerner is a writer living in San Antonio, Texas, with her husband and two Chihuahuas. A former children’s magazine editor and reporter for Prime Time Newspapers and the Express-News, Miranda has written for The Current, Taste, Chicken Soup for the Soul and many other publications. Her YA novel The Butterfly Dress was published by Girl E books and is available through Amazon.com and Smashwords. She is anticipating her next novel, Blue Mermaid, with Turquoise Morning Press in April 2013. For more information, visit www.wordsnwhimsy.com or her blog at www.aduckinherpond.com.


Find her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/mirandapkoerner or twitter @BlondeDuckie.

Saturday 19 October 2013

Guest Post - Caroline Fardig, Author of It's Just A Little Crush

I'm thrilled to welcome Caroline Fardig, author of It's Just A Little Crush, to my blog today. Hi Caroline, please can you tell us a little bit about your inspiration for your book and writing?

Where I find my inspiration

One question I get asked a lot is, “How do you come up with this stuff?”  The answer is that my mind is constantly churning ideas, and it’s much easier to “come up with stuff” than to turn it off!  However, as a writer, I’m always looking for unusual things to write about so I’m (hopefully) not pigeon-holed, as many writers end up being.  I look for inspiration in everything that I do and experience, but these are a few of my favorite ways to get those creative juices flowing.

Music

I always develop my stories to music.  When I re-read through certain scenes I have written, I can actually hear my “soundtrack” playing in the background.  Along the same lines, there are certain songs that when I hear them played, I’m immediately transported into the middle of one of my books, right inside the scene as if I were really there.  I like to put on some music and completely relax, letting my mind wander.  The music has to fit the mood of the scene, and sometimes if I find the perfect song, I wear out the replay button.

TV/movies

Let’s be clear—I am NOT in any way suggesting plagiarism here.  That being said, as a mystery writer, I find CSI very helpful.  Before I started watching, I had no idea about how the science behind forensics or the process of decomp worked.  I remember seeing one episode where the killer was using laughing gas to immobilize his victims so that he could set a fire and make it look like they had died accidentally.  The reasoning was that laughing gas doesn’t stay in the lungs for long, so it’s nearly impossible to find during an autopsy.  I wanted to go a little farther than that, and finally spun an idea about a killer mixing lethal combinations of meds that the victims were already taking.  Inspiration, not plagiarism.

Friends and family/ Life experiences

Write what you know!  If something funny or interesting happens to you, put it in your next novel.  I do.  I’ve used certain interesting quirks from people I know in my characters.  And my heroines always have at least a little bit of myself in them.

People watching

I love to people watch.  It’s fun to go to a crowded place and watch humans interact.  You can learn a lot just by watching facial expressions and body language, which are two things that are very important in writing.  If you can accurately describe a character’s expression and pair it with fitting dialogue, it’s like giving your readers a glimpse into your own imagination.  The better you can describe people, their appearances, and their interactions with others, the better your writing will be.

New places

The last two times I went to the beach, I came home with new story plans.  There’s something about staring out across the beautiful, rhythmic ocean that inspires the romantic side of me.  The funny part is, neither story was set at the beach, but it was inspiring just the same.  Conversely, if you’re setting a book in a big city (that you don’t live in), go and visit and get the feel of the area.  Don’t be a tourist—act like a local.  The same can be said of small towns.  Even if you live in a small town and your setting is much like where you live, go and visit another small town in the area.  You might find some interesting places or characters that you can use.
 
The bottom line is that inspiration is everywhere.  In the hectic way that most of us live our lives, it’s difficult to appreciate our surroundings.  Take time to stop and smell the roses—they might just inspire a bright, beautiful idea.

Thanks, Caroline!
 


IT’S JUST A LITTLE CRUSH by Caroline Fardig is a #1 Bestseller on Barnes & Noble’s Humor and Women Detectives lists!  IT’S JUST A LITTLE CRUSH will be on sale for $0.99 through October 24th.  Get your copy today!

Buy on Amazon:

Buy on B&N:

Available for:


Book blurb:
The sleepy town of Liberty hasn’t seen murder in…well…ever. Residents are stunned when the body of a young woman is found strangled, and reporters at the Liberty Chronicle are thrilled, rather disturbingly, over the biggest news story to hit town this century. 
Lizzie Hart has even bigger problems. Lately, she can’t seem to concentrate on her job as copy editor at the Chronicle with the new hunky investigative reporter, Blake Morgan, swaggering around the office. How can a girl work when she’s using all of her energy combating Blake-induced hot flashes and struggling to repress the giggly inner schoolgirl that’s constantly rearing her dorky head? It’s a good thing that Blake barely knows Lizzie exists. 
 
After an odd string of events, however, Lizzie begins to wonder if Blake is really as fabulous as she has fantasized. When Lizzie and Blake find a co-worker dead, Blake’s personality changes completely—and not in a good way. Even though the police rule the death as an accident, Lizzie immediately suspects foul play and senses a connection to the recent murder. She is determined to bring the killer to justice, but is having some trouble getting her Nancy Drew on thanks to the pesky stalker she’s picked up—Blake Morgan. Wait, didn’t she want him to follow her around and pay attention to her? Not like this. Blake has turned from cool and smooth to cold and downright scary, making Lizzie wonder if he should be next on her suspect list.

About the Author:

CAROLINE FARDIG was born and raised in a small town in Indiana. Her working career has been rather eclectic thus far, with occupations including schoolteacher, church organist, insurance agent, funeral parlor associate, and stay-at-home mom. Finally realizing that she wants to be a writer when she grows up, Caroline has released her debut novel, IT'S JUST A LITTLE CRUSH, now a #1 Bestseller. She is currently hard at work churning out a second novel in the LIZZIE HART MYSTERIES series. She still lives in that same small town with an understanding husband, two sweet kids, two energetic dogs, and one malevolent cat.

Social Media

My website:
My blog:
 
Twitter:  @carolinefardig

Facebook:

Media inquires:

Sunday 13 October 2013

Carolyn Ridder Aspensen Visits My Blog


I'm very happy to welcome, Carolyn Ridder Aspensen, an author and fellow Chicklit Goddess to my blog today. Welcome, Carolyn.


  1. Please can you describe ‘Unfinished Business’ in twenty words?  An emotional rollercoaster ride for a new and reluctant psychic medium whose dead mother's still a part of her life.  (Eep! That was hard. And not a very good tenth attempt, either!)
  2. What is your writing process, are you a plotter, or do you start with an idea and see where the story takes you as you write? I start with an idea. I tried the outline thing and found I didn't follow what I wrote and because I'm so anal retentive, I had to go back and CORRECT the outline to match what I'd changed in the book. Plus, I only outlined the first three chapters and realized it was a waste of time. It worked well with that book. The second one seems a teeny tiny bit more complicated (because the first one was largely based on my real life experiences and the second one is totally fictionalized). I'm also mindmapping the general story for my third book, not in this series. It's a 'cozy' mystery and requires a bit more planning. I don't like the planning. I know I'm going to change it but at least it will give me a general plan.
  3. What inspired you to write ‘Unfinished Business’? Since the book is largely based on events of my life it was that. My mother had recently died of lung cancer and I wanted to find a way to keep her alive for me. The character of Fran in the book is very much my mother, with only slight exaggerations.
  4. What is the best/worst experience you’ve had when self-publishing? Formatting and neck/shoulder issues. I have this special gift. I can break anything technology based. I can literally walk by a fax or copy machine and watch it crumble as I pass. No, I'm not joking. I once went to a psychic who told me I had a ridiculously strong energy field and she asked if things break around me. They do. Needless to say, that issue has dug deeper over the years and I find I can mess up any document better than anyone I know. Formatting is horrible. As for the neck and shoulder, so much time typing has made the degenerative disk disease I have even worse. It's lovely.
  5. What’s the most important advice you would give a writer who might be considering self-publishing? Before you even begin to type, research what you need to do and start out doing it the right way. From marketing to social media, to formatting, to how to plot a book...there is so much online now that it's not nearly as hard as it was a few years ago but you'll definitely save yourself a lot of time if you get all of your ducks in a row before you start.
  6. What are you working on at the moment? A few things, actually. I'm still marketing like crazy to sell Unfinished Business, which did actually make it to the top 400 on Amazon's bestseller list with a top out at 13 in the paranormal genre so I'm very excited about that. I'm also finishing up the second book in the series, Unbreakable Bonds. I'm waiting to get a copy of my novella Santa's Gift back from my editor. I'm working with a few other authors to put together a Holiday themed chick lit compilation book where all of the proceeds will go to a cancer charity. That should be available for pre-order in November and like I said, I've got a cozy mystery in the works. I'm really excited to start on that but have tasked myself to finish Unbreakable Bonds (and the edits it will need) before I truly start that one. It's motivation to get moving, that's for sure.

Thanks, Carolyn. You can buy 'Unfinished Business' from here for the Nook, here for the Kindle US, and here if you live in the UK.    




Unfinished Business
An Angela Panther Novel
By
Carolyn Ridder Aspenson
________________________________________________________________________
Sometimes the dead need our help and sometimes, we need theirs
                                               

ANGELA PANTHER HAS A PERFECT LIFE:  A lovely home, an attentive, successful husband, two reasonably behaved children, a devoted dog and a lot of coffee and cupcakes. But while her life might border on mundane, she's got it under control. Until her mother, Fran dies-and returns as a ghost. It seems Fran's got some unfinished business and she's determined to get it done.

Now Fran's got some nifty celestial superpowers and isn't opposed to using them to levy a little ghostly retribution on her granddaughter's frienemies and even her own daughter, which doesn't make Angela happy.

While Angela's shocked and grateful to have her mother back, she's not thrilled about the portal to the afterlife Fran opened upon her return. Now every ghost in town is knockin' on Angela's psychic door, looking for help-and it's a royal pain in the butt.

Now Angela's got to find a way to balance her family life with her new gift and keep her mother in line. And it's a lot for one woman to handle.
________________________________________________________________________
Carolyn Ridder Aspenson tackles, with comic cleverness, the serious subjects of mother-daughter relationships, death and raising teenagers in this smart, funny take on the love of family and the uncontrollable paths our lives take.

"It's about ghosts, the love of family, the never-ending love of mothers and daughters...add some humor and it's the perfect combination of adult/chick- lit/paranormal (all in one book)." - The Book Trollop
                                                                                                             
"Aspenson hits the ground running with her debut novel and carries the reader along on a rollicking adventure highlighting both the joys and conflicts of mother-daughter relationships." - Katrina Rasbold