Celebrate: Cloaked in Secrecy & Giveaways

This week I'm celebrating:
1) After FIVE trips to the dentist to finish ONE freaking root canal (darned infection refused to go away), my dentist and I both needed a break. No crown until May. Whew -- what a relief!
2) I hit 20k on my Alaskan WIP, Coldest Night. That's about a third through. Yay!
3) With no crown until May, I'll be pain free and will probably be able to finish the book in the next 2 months. That's faster than I've ever written before! I'll have to revise it, but I'll still have it done before summer. (And as you see by the image at the top right of my sidebar, I've made a bold promise to publish FOUR books this year!)

My CP of Awsomeness, T.F. Walsh has released her new novel CLOAKED IN SECRECY! I adore this one - it's my favorite of her books so far because it takes place in a circus, and we all know I love those! 

Congrats, Tania!

The Wulfkin Legacy saga continues with this gripping tale of love under extraordinary circumstances.
        Death has followed Alena Novac's circus family for years. When the police arrest her brother for a murder he didn't commit, she has only a week to rescue him before he transforms into his wolf form in prison and exposes their wulfkin existence to the world.
        Enre Ulf, a former member of the Varlac, the fearsome ruling wulfkin clan, plans to infiltrate Alena's circus clan and take out their alpha to save his home in Transylvania. Except he never expected his wolf to claim the alpha's daughter, Alena, as his mate, or feel compelled to save her brother to help protect the secrets of the wulfkin.
        With the police closing in and the blood feud threatening them, Alena and Enre must overcome their pasts to save their packs' futures.

Cloaked in Secrecy is the book #2 in the Wulfkin Legacy series, but can be read a stand-alone book.
Grab Your Copy: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Googleplay | iTunes

Wulfkin Legacy Series
Cloaked (prequel to #1) – Out now
Cloaked in Fur (Book #1) – Out now
Cloaked in Secrecy (Book #2) – Out now
Cloaked in Blood (Book #3) – May 2016
Cloaked in Christmas – End of 2016

Sign up here for T.F. Walsh’s newsletter to keep up to date with latest releases, special offers, and exclusive content. 

About The Author
T.F. Walsh emigrated from Romania to Australia at the age of eight and now lives in a regional city south of Sydney with her husband. Growing up hearing dark fairytales, she's always had a passion for reading and writing horror, paranormal romance, urban fantasy and young adult stories. She balances all the dark with light fluffy stuff like baking and traveling.
Author Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Goodreads | Amazon

My kind and wonderful co-hosts of Celebrate the Small Things are:
L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge
Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog

Celebrate The Small Things Linky:



Grab the Linky html-code here:
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.simply-linked.com/listwidget.aspx?l=79cd691b-a101-48a4-8603-4d22bb6626d8"> </script>

** To see who’s posted for the hop look at my Celebrate The Small Things Blog Roll, left sidebar bottom **

 Celebrate the Small Things. To be part of this blog hop, all you have to do is visit the Celebrate page on Lexa's Blog for the rules, and then post every Friday about something you're grateful  for that week.  It can be about writing or family or school or general life.  This is the funnest and easiest blog hop ever! (Originated by VikLit)

Foxy's Friday Freebies!

Foxy has been nosing around the net. 

When she finds great FREE STUFF, she'll feature it on Friday Freebies posts -

• Free short stories, novellas, and novels
• Giveaways for books and swag
• Free services for authors

Here are Foxy's suggestions for Mar 25, 2016:

Free YA Contemp/Romance eBook and $5 Amazon Gift Card – Win Under My Skin by Laura Diamond, about a boy who needs a heart transplant and the girl who’s brother dies to give him that chance, via rafflecopter on Leandra Wallace’s blog. (ends Apr 3)

Free Jazz-Age Cozy Mystery eBook – Win Vamps, Villains, and Vaudeville by Ellen Mansoor Collier, about a Roaring 20s society girl, her Prohibition Agent beau, and a murdered actor. Enter via rafflecopter on the Mythical Books blog. (ends Mar 30)

Free $25 Amazon Gift Card and Signed Contemp/Romance eBook – Win Back to Me by Kelly Miles, about an ex-FBI agent searching for the love of his life who abandoned him in the hospital and whose life is in grave danger, and a $25 Amazon card via rafflecopter on the Mythical Books blog. (ends Mar 30)

Free $50 iTunes Gift Card and Signed Romantic Comedy – Win a signed copy of Shopping for a Billionaire’s Wife by Julie Kent along with a $50 iTunes gift card via rafflecopter on the Romance Novel Giveaways blog. (ends Mar 30)

Free Kindle Paperwhite and $50 Amazon Gift Card – To celebrate the release of I’m Gonna Love You by Virna DePaul, about an Irish widower who comes to the US to forget the death of his wife and the sassy risk-taking American girl who makes him worry he may suffer loss all over again, the author is giving away a Kindle Paerwhite and a $50 Amazon card via rafflecopter on Romance Novel Giveaways blog (Hurry! ends Mar 26)


For Foxy's other Freebies, go to the Freebie page.

If anyone has a FREE short story (for download or online at a free ezine), novella, novel, special giveaway, or author service, please let Foxy know so she can plug you here!  Write to: laura.6eg(at)gmail.com

Celebrate: Under a Purple Moon & Giveaways!

This week, I'm sort of celebrating:
1) The dentist finished the root canal (maybe), and on Sunday I go back for him to start the crown procedure (I think). Not really sure why it's taking so many trips and costing more than I thought. I think the lack of clarity is due to him explaining things to me while I'm on pain meds...
2) I've succeeded in getting my rights to SOUL CUTTER back from the publisher. (yay!) It's now no longer on vendor sites and cannot be purchased. (yay?) Due to legal issues/contracts, I can't put it back out until September. (I think) But when I do, it'll have an awesome new cover and be less expensive than it was before! (definite YAY for that!)
3) The U.S. presidential campaigns.  Seriously -- what is up with those?  It's like watching a terrible car crash in slow motion.  

The one thing I'm sure I'm celebrating is Beverly Stowe McClure's new book!

No Love in the Garden of Eden...
        Eden Rose has learned to deal with her mother’s criticism that she can do nothing right. What she can’t deal with are the arguments between her parents. To escape their angry words, she finds refuge in an old abandoned house. She always returns home, hoping her mother will love her one day, even though Eden’s not sure what the word love means. 
        Three other teens with problems also hang out at the Old House. Meeting Murphy, Toby, and Josh changes Eden’s world, and she begins to have faith in herself. Perhaps she can do something right, after all. 
        Thanks to the boys, she begins to understand the meaning of love. But will it be enough to save her broken home life?

BUY:  AMAZON ~ AMAZON-UK ~ B&N ~ KOBO ~ iTUNES ~ SMASHWORDS

Put the book on your Goodreads "I Want To Read" list.

AUTHOR BIO:

Most days, you'll find Beverly at her computer writing stories young voices whisper in her ear. When she's not writing, she plays the piano. Her cats don't appreciate good music and run and hide when she tickles the ivories. She's sometimes called the "bug lady." She's not telling why.

Connect with Beverly here:
Blog   Facebook    Twitter   Goodreads



Removed From the Celebrate List – Update Your Blog Rolls
Thoughts For the Day (http://lindasmoots.blogspot.com/)

My kind and wonderful co-hosts of Celebrate the Small Things are:
L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge
Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog

Celebrate The Small Things Linky:



Grab the Linky html-code here:
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.simply-linked.com/listwidget.aspx?l=79cd691b-a101-48a4-8603-4d22bb6626d8"> </script>

** To see who’s posted for the hop look at my Celebrate The Small Things Blog Roll, left sidebar bottom **

 Celebrate the Small Things. To be part of this blog hop, all you have to do is visit the Celebrate page on Lexa's Blog for the rules, and then post every Friday about something you're grateful  for that week.  It can be about writing or family or school or general life.  This is the funnest and easiest blog hop ever! (Originated by VikLit)

Foxy's Friday Freebies!

Foxy has been nosing around the net. 

When she finds great FREE STUFF, she'll feature it on Friday Freebies posts -

• Free short stories, novellas, and novels
• Giveaways for books and swag
• Free services for authors

Here are Foxy's suggestions for March 18, 2016:

Free Adult Coloring Book -  Win a copy of Tropical Travel Patterns by Jaimie Horan, touted as a great stress reliever, coloring books for adults are now all the rage. Enter via Entry Form on Deals Among Us blog. (ends Apr 10)

Free Signed Hardcover YA Historical Novel – Win Nora & Kettle by Lauren Nicolle Taylor, about how the aftermath of WWII affect the troubled lives of a Japanese-American teen boy and a girl whose father is a civil rights lawyer by day but abusive at night. Enter via rafflecopter on Mythical Books blog. (ends Mar 21)

Free Signed Paperback Dark-Romance – Win Killer by Heather C. Leigh, about a man and woman lost in a whirlwind of past traumas and tragedies who get a chance to heal if they can learn to trust each other. Enter via rafflecopter on Mythical Books blog. (ends Mar 21)

Free Historical Romance Novel or Contemp/Romance/Women’s Fiction Novel – Win Blood Rose Angel (Historical Romance) by Liza Perrat or In Another Life (Contemp/Romance/Women’s Fic) by Julie Christine Johnson. Enter via Entry Form on the France Book Tours blog. (ends Apr 1)

Free YA Sci-Fi Hardcover Novel – Win The Secrets of Solace by Jaleigh Johnson (Delacorte/Random House), about a girl living on a war torn planet whose shocking discovery of a flying ship may turn the tide of war and perhaps the entire world of Solace, via Entry Form on the Children’s Book Review blog. (ends Apr 11)

Free $25 Amazon Gift Card – To celebrate the release of The Rise of Genesis (Sci-Fi/Paranormal) by M.R. Merrick, about a man with supernatural powers who’s captured by the dangerous government organization he’s been fighting all his life, the author is giving away a $25 Amazon card via rafflecopter on Mythical Books blog. (ends Mar 29)

Free $25 B&N Plus $25 iTunes Gift Cards – To celebrate the release of Dreadlands: Wolf Moon (YA Historical Fantasy) by Jaimie Engle, about a Viking boy who must get his sister to safety across the glaciers with a pack of skin-shifting arctic wolves on their trail, the author is giving away 2 gift cards, $25 to B&N and $25 to iTunes via rafflecopter on Mythical Books blog. (ends Apr 25)

Free Kindle Fire or Kindle PaperWhite or Kobo Glo – To celebrate the release of Liquid Cool (Sci-Fi/Cyberpunk/Detective) by Austin Dragon, he’s giving 2 winners their choice of one of the 3 devices listed, plus the chance to receive other Sci-Fi Cyberpunk fiction novellas, including These Mean Streets, Metal Flesh, Thy Kingdom Fall, Stars and Scorpions, and  Rising Leviathan. Enter via Entry Form on the Austin Dragon blog. (ends Mar 24)

For Foxy's other Freebies, go to the Freebie page.

If anyone has a FREE short story (for download or online at a free ezine), novella, novel, special giveaway, or author service, please let Foxy know so she can plug you here!  Write to: laura.6eg(at)gmail.com

Celebrate: The Cover Winner & Giveaways

Thanks for voting on my Cover Poll!

A total of 154 people voted -- but SurveyMonkey won't let me see the votes from 8 of them! Seems even if you check the "Don't limit number of responders" SurveyMonkey still limits them to 100. When my poll hit 108 they refused to show anything over 100 UNLESS I paid them a year's subscription. 

Yes, they were holding votes from 8 people hostage! 

But I don't negotiate with terrorists -- so I quickly made up another poll and put it in place of the old one. I continued to get voters and ended up with 46 new ones before I closed the poll yesterday with a total of 146 voters.

** Beware that the FREE version of SurveyMonkey

 is only free for your first 100 responders. **

Here are screenshots of the vote totals:

And the winner is:

..............

 *drumroll* 

................

Cover #8!

Runner-ups: Cover #1 and Cover #3 

Depending on input from whoever I decide to publish with, one of these three covers will be used.  :)

New member of Celebrate – Update Your Blog Rolls!

Project Why (http://projectwhy.blogspot.com)

Welcome Anouradha! 

My kind and wonderful co-hosts of Celebrate the Small Things are:
L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge
Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog

Celebrate The Small Things Linky:



Grab the Linky html-code here:
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.simply-linked.com/listwidget.aspx?l=79cd691b-a101-48a4-8603-4d22bb6626d8"> </script>

** To see who’s posted for the hop look at my Celebrate The Small Things Blog Roll, left sidebar bottom **

 Celebrate the Small Things. To be part of this blog hop, all you have to do is visit the Celebrate page on Lexa's Blog for the rules, and then post every Friday about something you're grateful  for that week.  It can be about writing or family or school or general life.  This is the funnest and easiest blog hop ever! (Originated by VikLit)

Foxy's Friday Freebies!

Foxy has been nosing around the net. 

When she finds great FREE STUFF, she'll feature it on Friday Freebies posts -

• Free short stories, novellas, and novels
• Giveaways for books and swag
• Free services for authors

Here are Foxy's suggestions for March 11, 2016:

Free YA Sci-Fi eBook – Win Facsimile by Vicki L. Weavils, about a girl guiding a scientist across a newly terra-formed planet and discovering other beings. Enter via rafflecopter on Sheri Larsen’s blog. (ends March 25)

Free Paranormal Romance eBook – Win Revelations by Jennifer Carole Lewis, about a powerful High Priestess who joins with a child therapist with psychic gifts when one of his young clients is kidnapped. Enter via Entry Form on the Romance Novel Giveaways blog. (ends Mar 15)

Free $10 Amazon Gift Card – To celebrate the release of Blues Bones (MG Horror) by Rick Starkey—about a kid determined to win a guitar-playing competition who gets voodoo spells off the net and takes bones from a cemetery, but pays a price—the author is giving away a $10 Amazon card via rafflecopter on Medeia Sharif blog. Few entries = Good chance to win! (ends Mar 17)

Free $25 Amazon Gift Card - To celebrate the 7-book series A Separate Heaven by Alex Disanti, a saga spanning generations of the lives and loves of two ultra-powerful families, the Hamiltons and the Gianellis, the author is giving away a $25 Amazon card via rafflecopter on the Mythical Books blog. (ends Mar 28)

Free $50 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash – To celebrate the release of Painting Rain (Historical Romance) by Annette K. Larsen, about a princess trying to get over the death of her beloved by seeking the tutelage of a master painter. Enter the $50 Amazon card or Paypal cash giveaway via rafflecopter on the Mythical Books blog. (ends April 2)



For Foxy's other Freebies, go to the Freebie page.

If anyone has a FREE short story (for download or online at a free ezine), novella, novel, special giveaway, or author service, please let Foxy know so she can plug you here!  Write to: laura.6eg(at)gmail.com

Celebrate: 200K Page Views & Giveaways!

I'm celebrating:
1)  Today or tomorrow, my blog will hit 200,000 page views! I've been watching the numbers climb on the Blogger "Total Pageviews" counter on my left sidebar all week, and I'm pretty excited! The total leaped up this week because I've been plugging my Cover Poll on blog hops, FB, and Twitter and have a lot of additional hits, about 700 (even though only about 80 of them have officially voted).
2) The dentist didn't have to pull my tooth. Yay! I'll be getting a crown. It's a lot more expensive but a lot less painful. 
3) My Cover Poll is doing well. According to SurveyMonkey stats, 82 wonderful people have voted so far, and many have also offered encouraging words and helpful suggestions in the comments. I plan to announce the winner and put up screenshots of the SurveyMonkey totals next Friday, Mar 11.

** If you haven't seen the book covers or voted yet, 

go to the link below! **

http://lexacain.blogspot.com.eg/2016/02/choose-your-favorite-cover.html

Do you keep track of your blog's page/post views, and look curiously at where they're from? Are most of the hits from your home country or others?


My kind and wonderful co-hosts of Celebrate the Small Things are:
L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge
Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog

Celebrate The Small Things Linky:



Grab the Linky html-code here:
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.simply-linked.com/listwidget.aspx?l=79cd691b-a101-48a4-8603-4d22bb6626d8"> </script>

** To see who’s posted for the hop look at my Celebrate The Small Things Blog Roll, left sidebar bottom **

 Celebrate the Small Things. To be part of this blog hop, all you have to do is visit the Celebrate page on Lexa's Blog for the rules, and then post every Friday about something you're grateful  for that week.  It can be about writing or family or school or general life.  This is the funnest and easiest blog hop ever! (Originated by VikLit)

Foxy's Friday Freebies!

Foxy has been nosing around the net. 

When she finds great FREE STUFF, she'll feature it on Friday Freebies posts -

• Free short stories, novellas, and novels
• Giveaways for books and swag
• Free services for authors

Here are Foxy's suggestions for Mar 4, 2016:

Free YA Thriller/Alternate-Reality/SciFi – Win Burning Midnight by Hugo Award-winning author Will McIntosh, set on a dystopian Earth about two poor teens who find a rare magical sphere and a millionaire who’ll stop at nothing to get it for himself. Giveaway via rafflecopter on YA Books Central blog. (ends Mar 9)

Free YA Fantasy Novel – Win Thief of Lies (a Library Jumpers novel) by Brenda Drake about a girl who jumps between libraries, across time, and into other words to save a boy from an evil wizard. Enter the giveaway via rafflecopter on YA Books Central blog. (ends Mar 15)

Free YA SciFi/Dystopian Adventure, $20 Amazon Gift Card, and Swag Packs – Win Flashfall by Jenny Moyer about two mine workers who find the leaders of their world have been lying to everyone, and a $20 Amazon Card, and swag packs. Enter via rafflecopter on YA Books Central blog.  (ends Mar 10)

Free Signed Crime/Thriller Paperback and Silver Necklace - To celebrate the release of Beautiful Masterpiece (Crime/Thriller) by Gen Ryan, she’s giving away a signed paperback copy of the book and a silver pendent necklace via rafflecopter on the Mythical Books blog. (ends Mar 8)

Free Historical/Paranormal Hardback & $10 Amazon Gift Card - To celebrate the release of The Black Lotus (Historical/Paranormal) by Claire Warner, she’s giving away a hardback copy of the book and a $10 Amazon card via rafflecopter on the Mythical Books blog. (ends Mar 20)

Free $20 Amazon Gift Card - To celebrate the release of Desire in Frost (YA Thriller/Mystery) by Alicia Rades, she’s giving away a $20 Amazon card via rafflecopter on the Mythical Books blog. (ends Mar 27)

Free $25 Amazon Gift Card – To celebrate the release of Big Mike and Minnie On the Run (comedy romance) by Susan Amanda Kelly, she’s giving away a $25 Amazon card via rafflecopter on the Mythical Books blog. Few entries = Good chance to win! (ends Mar 25)


For Foxy's other Freebies, go to the Freebie page.

If anyone has a FREE short story (for download or online at a free ezine), novella, novel, special giveaway, or author service, please let Foxy know so she can plug you here!  Write to: laura.6eg(at)gmail.com

IWSG: Tips For Designing Your Own Book Cover

I learned a few things when I made the covers for my 3 short stories, but I found out how much I didn't know when I tried to make covers for my upcoming Thriller/Mystery BLOODWALKER. 

I’m not an expert, but I can give you a heads up about things I’ve learned.


DESIGN FOR YOUR GENRE

The Big 5 publishing houses have been marketing to readers for many years. They know what works, and the styles of covers they use have affected reader expectations. 

For instance, Fantasy covers tend to be colorful 

while Horror ones tend to be dark and ominous. 

Romance covers usually use realistic pictures of the main characters

while Thrillers often show landscapes or something simple (a bloody chess piece, a silhouette of someone running).

Get an idea of what’s “standard” for your genre by:
1) Going to your genre’s Amazon Top 100 list.
2) Look at your favorite author’s books.
3) Google “Best (your genre) Book Covers” and see what covers bloggers or book sites have chosen as best.

Things to look for:
1) What colors are used.
2) Does the cover show a detailed background or an out-of-focus one? Or is there simply a flat color for the background?
3) What style font do they use and how big is it?
4) Are there strong contrasts between different colors, or light vs shadow, or picture color and font color?

**Secret tip**
Go to large book cover design sites—the ones that would charge $200 or more for a cover—and look at the “Pre-Made” covers they offer for your genre. See something you like? You can create close to the same design using images of your own.


USING IMAGES

Ideally, you want images that are “free for commercial use” or “free for commercial use with attribution,” which means give the site/photographer credit for the image at the front of your book where the copy right info is. 

Here are some sites with free images (or free with attribution):
Freepik.com
Bing.com
Morguefile.com
Pixabay.com
Commons.wikimedia.org

If you don’t find anything you can use, you can buy images relatively cheaply on sites like 123RF.com, Shutterstock.com, Dreamstime.com and Photobucket.com.


USING FONTS

There are a ton of awesome fonts out there. It’s like looking in a candy store! But think twice before you use a fancy or “artistic” font. Unusual fonts are often a hallmark of a homemade cover. Try to use the type of fonts most often used on covers in your genre. 

Great font sites:
Dafont.com
1001fonts.com
Fontspace.com
Fonts101.com
*Suggested by commenters: Fontsquirrel.com

**Beware!**
Many of the fonts are listed as “free for personal use.” That means NOT for commercial use. You need to do some digging and find out if the font designer wants money or an attribution or doesn’t allow any commercial use at all.

**Secret tip**
Have you found a good font, but think it’s too wide or too short to look good on your cover? Put the lettering on a transparent background, use the perspective change to squish or expand it, or make it taller or shorter. Then copy/paste it onto the cover. 


TECHNICAL DETAILS

1) The cover base you want to work on should be at least 1333 x 2000 (even better 2500 x 3750). However, different vendors want different sizes. Check Kindle, Createspace, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords and Apple for their recommended sizes. 
2) High resolution. It’s good to use dpi (dots per inch) of 300.00, not the usual 72.00 used by most blog pics that have low resolution for quick loading.
3) File format. It’s good to use a file format of .tif (LZW compression)  instead of .jpg or .png so you can avoid the color blotching that frequently occurs on bright colors like red.
4) If your book will be printed, you’ll need to make a much wider image with the cover image on the right, the book spine in the center, and the back cover with the blurb on it on the left.

** STOP! DON’T GO YET! **

Please help me choose the cover for BLOODWALKER. I’ve made 8 and you can choose which 2 you like best.

Go check out the 8 covers and vote for your favorite on the poll beneath them.
http://lexacain.blogspot.com.eg/2016/02/choose-your-favorite-cover.html



This is a post for the Insecure Writer's Support Group, the brainchild of Alex J. Cavanaugh. It exists so the community of blogging writers can share and support each other, blog-hopping to cheerlead and commiserate. To find out more, visit: Insecure Writer's Support Group. Plus, check out the IWSG Website for lots of helpful info and links.