Mia King's Blog, page 2

Listen to Sweet Life on Audible – Free Promo Codes!

Enter for a chance to win a free promo code for the audiobook of Sweet Life: A Novel. Listen on Audible today!

Call for Recipes for Family Room: A Novel

Submit a favorite recipe and you could see it in print in my next Mia King novel, Family Room.

November 2012 Newsletter

Greetings, friends! Wow, it’s November and the holidays are almost upon us! It’s been quiet on the Mia King front as I’ve been busy with kids, new house, a garden (argh — more on this later!), and of course, writing. BOOKS & WRITING I’m working on two novels for you — the first is the [...]

Woot! Mia Gets a New Look!

National bestselling author Mia King has a new look, and a new contest!

Authors in Bloom Blog Hop Giveaway

Authors in Bloom friends, welcome to the Mia King website!

After some technical difficulties, it seems that winter has decided to step aside and at, last, spring is here!

Celebrate the season with a fun blog hop! Join in the fun and hop around and visit all the Authors in Bloom. You'll find 10 days of gardening tips, recipes, great giveaways and one amazing grand prize: a Kindle Fire or Nook (winner's choice) along with a $25 gift card to get books for your new eReader.

The Mia King Giveaway!

I'm giving away this very sweet, very fun 8″ mini rainbow garden spinner PLUS a Mia King book of your choice!

Got spinner? Imagine yourself looking out your kitchen window and seeing this colorful spinner, happily spinning away in your garden!

To qualify, all you have to do is:

Head over to Amazon and give it the book you want a thumbs up ("Like"):

Good Things: http://www.amazon.com/Good-Things-Mia-King/dp/0425213714/ref=pd_sim_b_1
Sweet Life: http://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Life-Mia-King/dp/0425221679/ref=lp_B001JSCN3E_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333987422&sr=1-1
Table Manners: http://www.amazon.com/Table-Manners-Mia-King/dp/0425227898/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1333987470&sr=8-2

Leave a comment below telling us that you gave the book a thumbs up (let us know what # thumb you were!), your favorite flower, and where where you're from. That's it!
Bonus entries: Follow me on Facebook, join my mailing list, or give my Amazon author's page a "Like" Leave a comment on each one you complete.
Open to (US/CAN/INTNTL) friends.

To be eligible for the grand prize (Kindle or Nook) you need to take our two short phrases

Line 86: Rejoice in spring, the time for renewal and growth, blossoms and beauty–

Line 87: And of course, all things romance!

The tour ends April 18th at 11:59pm EST and then the winner will be picked.and go find the phrases on all the other participating blogs.  Assimilate all the phrases into the complete passage:  "Authors in Bloom," a vignette about a women's personal growth and empowerment.

Good luck, everyone, and thanks for stopping by! Here is the list of participating authors.

1.
Dianne Venetta
2.
YA Author PJ Sharon


3.
Vickie Taylor
4.
Alexa Grace


5.
Marilyn Brant
6.
Celebrating Spring


7.
Diana Layne Blog
8.
*lizzie starr


9.
Darcy Flynn
10.
Off Kilter


11.
Marci Baun
12.
Amber Kallyn


13.
Sarah Gilman
14.
Renee Pace


15.
A Cozy Reader's Corner
16.
Children's Author Maria Dismondy


17.
Indie Author How-To
18.
Deb Sanders


19.
Fresh Start Stories with Beverly Nault
20.
Aris Whittier


21.
Darcyholic Diversions
22.
Once Upon a Time: world of symbols


23.
YA author Katharina Gerlach
24.
Chick Lit (Bridget Jones's Diary meets The Office)


25.
Beate Boeker
26.
Jessica Chambers: Straight From The Heart


27.
Gotta Have YA
28.
Karl Fields


29.
Sally Clements
30.
Dina Silver


31.
Sybil Nelson
32.
Priscilla the Great


33.
Nina Benneton
34.
Caron Rider, YA Author of Silver Knight


35.
Tara Woolpy
36.
J.M. Kelley


37.
Susan Mallery Cooks
38.
J.L. Campbell


39.
Amy Saunders
40.
Kaira Rouda


41.
Michael Scott Miller
42.
Samantha March


43.
Marika Christian
44.
Elena Aitken


45.
No Hope for Gomez!
46.
Nearly Brilliant


47.
WHO GOT LIZ GARDNER
48.
Amy Lignor – Until Next Time: The Angel Chronicles


49.
Jolene Perry – Night Sky
50.
ShaynaGier.com


51.
DeeSWhite-Author, Inspirational Speaker, Vocalist
52.
Tracy Marchini – Hot Ticket


53.
STAY TUNED – Lauren Clark
54.
TwoCanDo Books Mary Laudien's Website- Follow the Blog!


55.
Maria Geraci
56.
Pandora Poikilos – Peace from Pieces


57.
Christina Wible
58.
ALMOST HUMAN – venomous vampire series


59.
Walking with Justice
60.
Author Darien Gee and the Friendship Bread Kitchen


61.
K.E. Saxon
62.
Cynthia Vespia Author of Thrills and Chills


63.
Louisa Mack – Cooking Up Trouble
64.
Cheryl – Books, Products and More!


65.
Sloane Wolf – Margay Leah Justice
66.
Daddy, Come & Get Me


67.
Author Mia King (Good Things, Sweet Life, Table Manners)
68.
Welcome to the Woods


69.

70.
But What Are They Eating?


71.
Sheila Seabrook – Tripping My Way Through Life
72.
Alicia and Roy Street


73.
Indie Pub Promos
74.
RS Author Stacey Joy Netzel


75.
Doing Italians, Oops!, Italy

 

Crafty Writers

Whenever someone asks me about my writing process, there are always a few people who look disappointed when they discover that I don't write my novels by hand (sorry, folks!). You know, Bic pen and yellow pad as I sit in an armchair overlooking a garden. A warm cup of tea steeping beside me, the day sunny and full of promise.

Wow, that actually sounds kind of nice.

Simple writing tools are always the best, and that's the truth. And whenever I teach a creative writing class I ban laptops from the classroom. There's something about the connection between the heart, head and hand that helps you get to that raw, hidden stuff faster.

But the truth is, I write a lot on the computer these days. Okay, I write almost exclusively on the computer these days. It helps that I'm a fast typist, and usually my brain is churning ideas at a rate that's impossible for me to keep up if I'm writing by hand. Because I know the importance of keeping that mind-body connection, especially if you tend to live in your head a lot, I find other ways to make this connection. How, you may ask?

I get crafty.

I do it in simple ways. Like sorting buttons by color. I have pounds and pounds of them — mostly vintage and paper crafting buttons I've won from eBay auctions. I sewed muslin bags and filled each one with about 70-80 buttons and sold a bunch at a craft fair last November, along with copies of my books.

I started playing with modern and vintage Hawaiian fabrics. I started sewing and playing with scraps, and came up with what I call The Aloha Pillow. A muslin pocket stamped with "ALOHA" is filled with lavender from Waimea, the small upcountry town in Hawaii where I live, so whenever you feel the need for a little aloha, you just give it a squeeze. I made about 20 and sold out at that same craft fair. A few people bought them for friends who'd moved or who lived on the mainland but loved Hawaii. Some bought them for family members who were sick or in the hospital. Some just loved how colorful and inspired they are (I use at least three different fabrics for each heart).

By the time I'm finished sorting my buttons or stepping away from my sewing machine, I feel ready to return to the monochrome page in front of me, the stark black and white which has become my dominant view for the past few years. My mind is usually charged with new ideas, or at least I've cleared the cobwebs if there were any. Most importantly, all this casual crafting reminds me that it's important to keep the mind, body and spirit in balance.

Any other crafters out there? What do you love to do or make?

My popular "buttons in a bag," vintage and contemporary buttons sorted by color.

Sweet Life by Mia King -- BOOK GIVEAWAY!

Hi everyone! I'm giving away a copy of my second novel, SWEET LIFE (Berkley Books), on my Facebook page. Booklist called it "A truly delightful read!" Just leave a comment on the post to enter to win; a winner (or two!) will be drawn on Thursday, 1/13. Good luck!

http://www.facebook.com/authormiaking

Last Days of Summer

So here we are: August 1, 2010. More than half way through what was, at one point, a new year and closer to the next one. Is it just me or has time flown by like nobody's business?

Lately I've been going around the island with my husband and trying to play tourist. There's a line in my second novel, SWEET LIFE, where my protagonist, Marissa Price, is waiting to board her plane in New York to head back to the Big Island. She looks around and realizes that while everyone else is going on...

Foreign Friendship Bread, a Little World Music, and a Contest!

If you're a Facebook fan, then you're getting the updates on the foreign rights that have been sold for my next novel, FRIENDSHIP BREAD (not a fan yet? Join the party now!). So far rights have been sold to Allen & Unwin in Australia in a pre-empt, Leya Brazil (for Portuguese language rights) in a pre-empt, Blanvalet Random House in Germany at auction, and Piemme in Italy in a pre-empt. FRIENDSHIP BREAD will be published in the U.S. in hardcover by Ballantine Books in 2011 — even I don't know ...

Mia Needs a Haircut and Some Friendship Bread

I am shockingly overdue for a blog post. And a new haircut.

But I have an excuse! (I know, I'm a writer — we don't get excuses! At least that's what I tell my students.) You may have heard the news about my next novel, FRIENDSHIP BREAD. It sold at auction in mid-March to Ballantine Books for hard cover publication in 2011 and foreign rights have already been sold to Italy, Brazil, and Australia.

I wrote this book last year after my own daughter brought home a bag of Amish friendship bread...