Wishing everybody a day of joy and peace.
Happy Resurrection Sunday!
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Category Archives: Uncategorized
A Nice Surprise From Stevie Turner’s Blog!
Author Richard Bell Talks With Kim Cox!
Smorgasbord Book Promotions – Summer Book Fair 2023 – #Contemporary #Romance Stevie Turner, #Supernatural #Adventure John W. Howell, #ComingofAge, #Family #Relationships Beem Weeks
I’m honored to have a mention on Smorgasbord Blog Magazine!
This year in the second part of the Summer Book Fair, I will be sharingmy recommended booksfrom the last 12 months and sharing either my review or one of their top reviews.
The first book today is a book that has many twists and turns Stevie Turner – and her contemporary romance – Falling.
About the book
Death seems preferable to wasting what remains of his youth in prison.
James Hynde, fortified by several tots of whiskey, climbs up onto the roof of Parker Mews’ multi-storey car park and peers over the parapet. The game is up. The police will soon seize his millions, the Maserati, the London townhouse, and the Caribbean mansion on Windjammer Island.
Should he jump feet first or hold out his arms and topple over and over like a somersaulting gymnast? He closes his eyes, feels the breeze on his face, and…
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Flawed Characters – Part II
A fine post on flawed characters on Story Empire!
Hello SE friend, Gwen with you today. Last month, I began a series on crafting flawed characters and considered Post Traumatic Stress as a personality component. You can review that post here. Today we continue the discussion, but first I begin with a story.
Last week I returned from a visit with my adult children in the greater New York City area. During the visit, I spent time with my beautiful teenage granddaughter. She often spoke about climate change and what she is doing to bring awareness to that problem. Then, in one conversation, she shared her belief that life would soon end unless there are dramatic changes. Though I was saddened to hear her assessment, I found myself jumping back in time to when I was around her age.
During my college years, three of the people I looked up to were assassinated: President John F. Kennedy, Dr…
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The Top Ten Traits of Successful Writers – Can You See Yourself?
Another fine Story Empire post by John Howell!
Photo by Johnny Briggs on Unsplash
Hello SEers. John is with you today. I hope your week is going well. As you know, I continually poke at the idea of motivation and personal feelings about writing. I truly believe one of the biggest reasons writers are unhappy or decide to quit writing is grounded in motivation.
Today is no exception in that I did some ChatGPT research on some of the universal traits of successful writers. I did not define success but just left it generic, but after seeing the list, I don’t think a definition is necessary. The list of traits can be refined to ten, and I suppose we could debate whether any of the items should be on the list. Also, these traits occur in combination.
So why did I do this? Good question. Sometimes we fail to take an inventory of what we, as individual writers…
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Elements of a Dual Timeline Novel: Connecting Past to Present
Another fine post on Story Empire!
Hi, SEers! It’s another Mae Day on Story Empire, and the closing post for my series on dual timelines. If you’ve missed any of the previous posts and would like to visit, I’ve linked them below:
Part One: An Introduction
Part Two: Character Development
Part Three: Timeframes and Settings
Today is all about connections. In a dual timeline novel, you’re usually working with one timeline in the present and one in the past. Remember that each should be able to stand separately, but also tie together at the end. That means there needs to be a connection between the two. Common connections include linked ancestry, inherited or purchased property, found documents or a catastrophe.
Linked Ancestry
Your unassuming office clerk, Walter, learns disquieting rumors about a deceased ancestor and begins investigating to discover more. Perhaps great-great-great grandfather Thaddeus died under mysterious circumstances, vanished without a…
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A Look at Kindle Vella
Check out Story Empire!
Greetings, SE’ers! Beem Weeks here with you again. Today, I’m going to talk a little about Amazon’s Kindle Vella!
So, what exactly is Vella? Well, according to Amazon, Vella is a way to share serialized stories with readers over a period of time. Each chapter, called an episode on the site, is released one at a time. The first three episodes are free. After that, readers can follow along for a small fee. The site offers features like thumbs up, faves, and follow the author.
Click HERE to look for yourselves.
Think of Vella as a story subscription service. This is the digital age, after all. The platform is another outlet for writers to use when releasing new material. With Vella, the writer gets paid before the book is even released—if your work entices readers to follow along. Beginning with the fourth episode, readers must purchase tokens to continue reading…
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Interview with Stephen Geez, Founder of Fresh Ink Group
Geez discusses Fresh Ink Group!
THE INTERVIEW
Can you tell us a bit about the history and mission of Fresh Ink Group, and what sets you apart from other companies offering similar services?
Founder Stephen Geez set up Fresh Ink in the early ’90s and hired a manager to handle the logistics of his publishing contracts and publicity. Unhappy with both of his publishers, he expanded it to Fresh Ink Group in ’95 as one of the first hybrid POD publishers where author and publisher share the costs and author retains all ownership—an author-centric publisher. FIG has since expanded into full multi-media publishing with worldwide distribution: hardcovers, softcovers, all ebook formats, cover design with promo graphics, audiobooks with sfx and music, videos and book trailers, podcasting, websites, editing/proofing, social media, and more. We have a few hundred titles from around fifty authors and are growing steadily.
What kinds of services do you offer to writers…
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The Vanishing Review!
Check out my post on Story Empire!
Greetings, SE’ers! Beem Weeks here with you again. Today, I’m discussing vanishing reviews on Amazon.
Last year, I wrote a post on the necessity of being honest in our reviews of books we’ve read. If we enjoy the story, we explain why. If there were issues, we report those issues without being hurtful or harmful. A review helps the writer, sure, but it also assists readers searching for their next book.
So, if you enjoyed a particular novel, and you wrote a glowing review, why would Amazon yank your review after a day or a month or even longer? That’s a question many of us have had to contemplate at least a time or two.
I’ve written hundreds of reviews on the mighty Amazon over the past decade or so. My reviews cover almost everything I’ve ever purchased from the site. Books, music, electronics, replacement refrigerator handle—if I bought it…
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The Indie Spot! 