Writing...Just because!

As I sat down to start writing this blog about being persistent, I mentally stumbled because, well… persistence is tough. Especially during the lull that inevitably comes after the flurry of a book launch. Actually, it’s not a lull, it often feels like a crash and burn! How can I write about persistence when all I want to do is hide away and curl up with a good book? Love those Sugar Highs It’s like the crash after a sugar high. My new book, Deep Deceit , came out with a bang! It reached the Kindle Top 10 in mystery/suspense on Amazon.ca during launch week. Heady stuff. The problem is, there’s no way, other than huge sales or continuous free downloads, to keep it there. But, the idea ultimately is sales, right? My book is in a very popular genre so I’m competing with some heavy hitters, but I persevere. Helpful Resources I read self-publishing and marketing books voraciously. One I read a while back and pulled out again recently is called Let’s Get Visible by David Ga...

MT and me at my graduation from MSVU in 1990 I would like to wish a very happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there, especially the amazing woman who brought me (and 4 older brothers and sisters) into the world. We call her Mother Theresa or MT for short. Her name really is Theresa so it wasn't a stretch to nickname her after the famous nun who healed the sick and cared for the poorest of poor. We think our MT is pretty special too. It's hard to describe how I feel about her without getting a big lump in my throat. She fills my heart with love, she's my best friend, my confident, my counselor and supporter. Reading my favourite book, Teddy Bear's Picnic, with MT At a very early age she instilled a love of reading in us that kept us entertained over the years right up until this very day. Being an avid reader herself, she is also my biggest fan, of course. I should dedicate every single book I write to her as she has also been the most enthusiastic ...

Image from freedigitalphotos.net by Digitalart A while back, I promised that I would share the list of bloggers who joined in the virtual book tour for my debut novel, Mental Pause , and did either an author interview, book review, a combination review/interview and/or invited me to do a guest blog. If you're planning a blog tour, I encourage you to take a look at the blogs you're planning to pitch, subscribe to them, engage with them and, above all, read their guidelines for submitting queries for book reviews. Each one requires a slightly different process and not all of them will be interested in the genre you write, so don't just blast a list. Put some thought into personalizing each query and you'll have a much better return on time spent. So here's my list... it keeps growing but this is as it stands now. I hope you enjoy exploring these blogs as much as I have: Expat Info Desk - Feb. 28th  - Author Interview Adventures in Expatland, Review and Int...

I thought I would do something a little different in today's blog. With the permission of my wonderful designer Graham Booth from Creation Booth , I wanted to share some of the other book cover design options he presented to me through the design phase as we prepared my first novel, Mental Pause , for launch this past March. I'd love your feedback on whether or not you think I chose the right cover! I'm working on my next novel and choosing a cover is definitely one of the most important things you'll ever do as an indie author. Even if you're not an author and you're working on content for a communications piece that will require a graphical element, choosing the right visual presentation of your work is just as critical as the written message.  So... here is the cover I chose:  Below are several of the other designs Graham proposed: You can see I did use the window image from this one but the woman's face just didn...