Writing...Just because!

The launch week activity has wrapped up and we're taking a breather before continuing with the virtual tour so I thought I'd take the opportunity and use this post to share with you some of the free book listing websites I've found and successfully posted on (some accept only ebooks and some are for print). Here are a few you might like to add to your own book marketing strategy: Authors Den "Where authors and readers come together." Author Marketing Club "Join thousands of authors who want to promote their books. Free book marketing resources and tools." Book Hitch "A search engine for books." Book Matchers "Tell us what you like and we'll match you with a book." Booksie "Publish. Read. Get Read." Good Kindles "Where writers meet readers." Good Reads (of course)! "Meet your next favorite book." Library Thing "A Home for your books." There are hundreds more and...

It was a busy launch week for Deep Deceit. I'm thrilled to report that on the second day of the Kindle give away, it landed on the Top 10 Amazon Best Seller List on Amazon.ca for mystery and suspense!   The tour cranked up and if you missed any of the stops, here's a re-cap of where we've been so far: Book Readers Heaven  - kicked off the tour on March 8th. Thank you Glenda Bixler for your launch day review. If you like to peruse reviews to find your next good read, definitely put this blog on your favorites list! She's started to review poetry too :) Arabian Tales and Other Amazing Adventures  - March 10th It's always a pleasure to visit this blog by travel writer and blogger, Katie Foster. Stop by and see what she has to say about Deep Deceit and hang out for a while and get lost in her adventures. Retired? No one told me! - March 11 A quick plug from friend and fellow Phuket Writer, Carol Taylor. More to come! Morgen Bailey's Writing Blog  - ...

I'm totally excited, relieved, nervous, thrilled... and any other adjective you can come up with to describe how it feels when launching a new book! Deep Deceit is finally available on Amazon in both print and Kindle and I'm heading out on tour to spread the word. I'd like to thank all the bloggers who have agreed to participate in my Virtual Book Tour and encourage you to visit their blogs not only on the day they join the tour but make sure you go back and visit regularly! Here is the line-up of blogs I'll be visiting and featured on with interviews, reviews or guest posts. As the posts are live, I'll update the links here to go directly to the post. I look forward to interacting with everyone at all the stops! Book Readers Heaven  - kicks off the tour on March 8th! Arabian Tales and Other Amazing Adventures, March 10th Retired? No one told me!, March 11 Morgen Bailey's Writing Blog - March 12 Ask David - March 14 The Written Chakra - March 15 ...

Today I'm pleased to welcome author Nancy Christie as part of her 'Birthday Blog Tour' for her new collection of stories recently published by Pixel Hall Press. Here is her personal story of perseverance and commitment to her passion for writing.  When I think about how I went from writing individual stories to having eighteen pieces published as Traveling Left of Center and Other Stories  it is less a case of going right, left or straight ahead and more like the Beatles’ song: “The Long and Winding Road.” And it has been a long and winding road—long, because I started writing short stories in second grade (many many decades ago!) and winding because my writing has followed a very hit-or-miss pattern. There were some years when I wrote like mad, other years, when I wrote not so much or not at all—not because I didn’t want to but because of personal responsibilities or my own fear that if I tried, there would be nothing there. But every now and then, a story idea ...

As I've shared before, my life is not complete or balanced unless I have the opportunity on a regular basis to meet with and share 'the writing life' with fellow scribes. The writers' group that has formed... no, actually it's not just formed, it's come alive, for me in Phuket gives me something to look forward to every month. Many of the members have become true friends as well. You know, the kind that will stay with you for a lifetime! I know this is the case with this group, especially since we are bound together by a wonderful collaborative project that finally culminated last month (Happy New year to us!) in the publication of Phuket Island Writers - An Anthology of Short Stories . What a proud moment this past Saturday when we all held hard copies in our hands! Here's the back cover blurb: What do you get when you mix multiple nationalities and personalities with an island paradise and a boatload of creative ideas? For one eclectic (and some m...

I've just finished leading a writing retreat in beautiful Phuket Thailand and am buzzing from the high that hanging out with fellow authors always leaves. On day one we talked about the start of the journey towards finding your author voice. As we opened with an exercise where participants interviewed and introduced each other, one writer introduced another by saying, "Her inner artist is very protective of her own blank canvass." It was the beginning of the shedding of egos, the recognition that to be a writer you have to say 'I'm a writer!' very loud and very clear and... then just get down to the business of writing, which is the only way to actually discover the author voice that is inside you. You hear so many literary critics, book reviewers and lecturers say that every author has a unique ‘voice’ but what exactly does that mean? The more you read, and start to pay attention to the different nuances of different writers, the clearer this become...