Heather Huffman's Blog, page 28

Summer Reading List

Today, it hit me full force how incredibly tired I am from the flurry leading up to the move. This got me to thinking about my summer reading list because, obviously, the best way for me to recover from all the activity is to curl up in the shade and make a dent in said list before it gets too out of control.

It’s been so long since I’ve had time to do anything, the stack of books I want to read has gotten a little high, but here are the top three along with the description as found on Amazon:

1. Tulip Season by Bharti Kirchner

A missing domestic-violence counselor. A wealthy and callous husband. A dangerous romance.

Kareena Sinha, an Indian-American domestic-violence counselor, disappears from her Seattle home. When the police dismiss suspicions that she herself was a victim of spousal abuse, her best friend, Mitra Basu, a young landscape designer, resolves to find her. Mitra’s search reveals glimpses of a secret life involving her friend and a Bollywood actor of ill repute. Following the trail, Mitra is lured back to India where she uncovers the actor’s ties to the Mumbai underworld and his financial difficulties – leading her into a web of life-threatening intrigue where Mitra can’t be sure of Kareena’s safety or her own.

2. Gabriel’s Rapture by Sylvain Reynard

Professor Gabriel Emerson has embarked on a passionate, yet clandestine affair with his former student, Julia Mitchell. Sequestered on a romantic holiday in Italy, he tutors her in the sensual delights of the body and the raptures of sex. But when they return, their happiness is threatened by conspiring students, academic politics, and a jealous ex-lover. When Gabriel is confronted by the university administration, will he succumb to Dante’s fate? Or will he fight to keep Julia, his Beatrice, forever?

In Gabriel’s Rapture, the brilliant sequel to the wildly successful debut novel, Gabriel’s Inferno, Sylvain Reynard weaves an exquisite love story that will touch the reader’s mind, body, and soul, forever.

3. First Wave (Billy Boyle WWII Mystery) by James R. Benn

Lieutenant Billy Boyle reluctantly accompanies Major Samuel Harding, his boss, in the first boat to land on the shores of Algeria during the Allied invasion. Their task is to arrange the surrender of the Vichy French forces. But there is dissension between the regular army, the local militia, and De Gaulle’s Free French. American black marketeers in league with the enemy divert medical supplies to the Casbah, leading to multiple murders that Billy must solve while trying to rescue the girl he loves, a captured British spy.

I’ll check back in when I’m finished to let you know what I thought. In the meantime, what’s on your summer reading list?

 

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Book Marketing Tips for the Novice

I’m happy to welcome author Suzanne Anderson to my blog today. You can find her novel Mrs. Tuesday’s Departure on Amazon, where Kindle Prime readers can read it for free at the moment!

By Suzanne Anderson

Marketing can be intimidating if, like most writers, you are an introvert. However, whether you are a writer with a traditional publisher or self-published, increasingly promoting your book will be your second job.

If like me, you are a novice at book promotion, allow me to share a few helpful tips I’ve picked as I navigate my way through my first book tour and marketing campaign in support of my first novel, MRS. TUESDAY’S DEPARTURE.

Establish dedicated Author Pages on Facebook, Google+, Tumblr, and/or Twitter. There often seems to be a fine line between what we share with our family and friends and what we want to share with readers. You want to be approachable and friendly, but not so much so that your personality overshadows your books. Unless of course, you write memoirs, in which case share away!
Be consistent. You will probably find that one of these social media platforms is a more natural fit than others. Which is fine, you’ll be rewarded with a greater fan base accordingly. However, no matter which you choose, be consistent. Check in regularly with new information and be interactive! Engage your new friends in conversation.
Emulate your mentors. There are so many wonderful blogs and newsletters available for new authors. Subscribe, read, emulate, and become involved in their communities. You can learn an incredible amount from the experiences of others and try out what feels right for you. A few of my favorite marketing and book review blogs are:

OrangeberryBookTours.com
TheCreativePenn.com
I am a Reader Not a Writer.blogspot.com
TheDiviningWand.com


Give Back! Reach out to other authors and offer to host them on your blog for an interview, or promotional giveaway of their latest book. Leave encouraging comments on their blog so they’ll not feel as if they’re writing into an empty room. Or even better, leave a positive review on Amazon.com or Goodreads.com after you’ve read their book. And don’t forget to tweet the link afterwards!
Most of all, be your authentic self.  Promoting yourself and your book may not come naturally, but if you can think of it as a conversation with friends, it may become an enjoyable part of your writer’s life.



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Friday’s Mark: Helping Classical Artists Share their Gifts

[image error]After a brief break to move my family to our dream homestead, I’m excited to get back into my blogging routine! What better way to start things up again than with a Friday’s Mark visit from a lovely and talented fellow Booktrope author, Gale Martin. I hope you enjoy her post, and I encourage you to check out her novel, Don Juan in Hankey, PA!

~Heather

Helping Classical Artists Share their Gifts

by Gale Martin

When my literary agent at the time told me to remove a thread from the novel she’d picked up and write a whole novel with an opera backdrop, I groaned. I didn’t know enough about opera to use it as a theme for a book, and I wasn’t certain I wanted to spend an entire graduate semester researching it.

Though I was musical by inclination and training, I avoided studying the classical arts when I was a conservatory student in my twenties. I had to sing one role in an opera workshop for Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Though translations of the German opera vary, I’ll never forget my first sung line from the ladies’ trietto:

“Die, monster, die. Pernicious bane.”

Pernicious bane? I didn’t know what either of those lines meant at the time. Nor did I care. Opera, I decided, was an archaic, inaccessible art form.

Flash forward to 2009, when I had traded my musical theater career for a writing career. If someone in a position to advance your writing tells you, she can sell an opera-themed novel in a heartbeat, you will move mountains to accomplish what she’s asked.

So, I wrote that backstage opera novel, DON JUAN IN HANKEY, PA, eventually published by Booktrope in 2011. But a funny thing happened while researching opera for half a year. I began to appreciate it and like it and most especially, respect those who did it for a living because they had to. Remember that old pop song, “I’ve got the music in me.” Opera was the music that was inside these select performers, which could only be exorcised through intense study and performance.

Since I had amassed all this knowledge about opera, I began writing a blog and then a Facebook page devoted to opera, both called “Operatoonity.”

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Since starting the blog in early 2010, I’ve featured dozens of rising artists in robust Q&A’s, profiled fledging opera companies, and promoted innovative programs. Some of my favorite pieces have included a profile of a young English soprano who was born completely blind but whose dream is to someday become an opera singer;  a feature on Opera for Humanity, an organization devoted to raising funds for children and charities;  and a profile of a rising opera star, whom I reviewed in New York City, who has since added my Q&A to his website and gone on to be profiled in the Met’s prestigious Opera News.

You see, most people associate opera with opulence. While it costs a small fortune to patronize some of the largest opera companies around the world, the truth is that there are plenty of gifted, struggling artists who make pittance for devoting their extraordinary talents in which they’ve invested years of study, to what some deem as a dying art form. Or they are volunteering countless hours in administrative roles, just to provide the kinds of hands-on, real-world opportunities artists in the classical arts need to grow and improve.

Each month, I receive dozens of press releases from opera companies around the world. If I can post their news and a few photos, I’ll gladly do it, just to give them some exposure.

Everything I do for Operatoonity.com is work done on my own time, for no payment. My goal is to elevate their visibility, their prospects, their flagged spirits and encourage them to press onward toward their lofty goals to advance the art of opera.

Though I haven’t always been a fan of opera, I have always found the arts to be transcendent, to move man out of his everyday mire and closer to the Creator’s perfection. God is in nature, surely, but God is also evident in art, architecture, theater, and music. God has more dimensions than we can possibly conceive of, and if we are made in his image, then we are servants, teachers, thinkers, healers, and artists.

When I hear the work of a timeless composer sung by a talented, classically trained singer, no matter the venue, I am reminded of this quote, reputedly written on a wall of the Alte Oper House in Frankfurt, Germany:

Bach gave us God’s word. Mozart gave us God’s laughter. Beethoven gave us God’s fire. God gave us music that we might pray without words.                                                    

I believe much of opera is divinely inspired. Those who can perform it are sharing some of God’s gifts in the mortal world. And I’m very proud to host a free, accessible forum to tell people about all of these abundantly gifted artists via Operatoonity.

 

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Visiting Karen DeLabar

Not only is Karen DeLabar kind for having me as a guest on her blog today, she’s an excellent interviewer. Her questions took me a while to answer because I wanted to do them justice. I hope you enjoy the interview!

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Visiting Live to Read

Many thanks to Krystal at Live to Read for having me as a guest today! Stop by to find out a bit more about some of the organizations I work with and their role in Devil in Disguise.

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Visiting Bornean Bookworm Reads

What a busy week! Today, I’m excited to be a guest over at Bornean Bookworm Reads! Find out why I got quizzical looks from a New York agent when I first pitched Jailbird and why I am stupidly excited about Devil in Disguise.

Thanks to Vanessa for hosting me, and don’t forget to enter to win a free e-copy of Jailbird while you’re there!

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Visiting Scrivengale

Be sure to stop by Scrivengale this afternoon to check out my interview by fellow Booktrope author, Gale Martin!

Thanks to Gale for having me!

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Visiting My Fiction Nook

Join me over at My Fiction Nook as I talk about what inspired the books Jailbird and Devil in Disguise. I’ll also be chatting a bit about two organizations near to my heart, and there’s a giveaway!

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Visiting Girl Who Reads

Join me over at Girl Who Reads as I talk about my upcoming release, Devil in Disguise, and why Conrad Langston and Rachel Cooper were the next to get their own story.

I can’t thank Donna enough for having me as a guest today and for her kind words!

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An Exciting Week!

[image error]I know I don’t usually post on Sunday, but I had to make an exception this week because there are so many exciting things coming up that I wanted to take a minute to share.

We’re getting really close to the release of my next novel, Devil in Disguise. This book was a lot of fun for me to work on because it revisits characters from several other novels, including Jailbird and Suddenly a Spy. In preparation for its release, I’m spending the next week on a Jailbird blog tour! Be sure to check out each post, as it will have more insight into the Jailbird/Devil in Disguise connection and how my relationships with groups on the front lines of the fight against human trafficking played into the novel.

Here are the sites I’ll be visiting:

Girl Who Reads

My Fiction Nook

Bornean Bookworm Reads

Live to Read

Karen DeLabar

They’re all great sites, and I can’t thank them enough for having me as a guest next week! I’ll post links as they go live.

Also, as part of the excitement leading up to the release of Devil in Disguise, my novel Suddenly a Spy will be available for free on Kindle from May 22 – 26. If you haven’t read it yet, now’s your chance. If you have, thank you! Please tell a friend to check it out.

And last, but certainly not least, I think it’s finally time to start sharing a little more about the next book. Here’s the official blurb, well, unless it changes at the last minute…:

Author Heather Huffman reunites some of her fans’ favorite characters with this unforgettable journey of romance, friendship, humor and suspense.

Tenacious reporter Rachel Cooper devotes her life to exposing corruption by shining a light on the darker corners of the world, a career that doesn’t leave much room for relationships.   Even so, she finds it impossible to stop thinking about her unexpected run-in with Conrad Langston, an old flame that never quite burnt out.

When her mother calls in the middle of the night because her sister is missing and the police are offering little help, Rachel immediately turns to the only person she knows she can always count on – Conrad.

Determined to protect her family, Rachel discovers the frightening and tragic underworld of human trafficking. As her pursuit of justice pulls her deep into the darkness, she recognizes an opportunity to re-evaluate her choices in life and take a new path – even if it means walking through the fires of hell to protect the ones she loves.

Passionate, engaging and poignant, Devil in Disguise entertains while raising awareness of modern day social issues.

 

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