M.A. Comley's Blog, page 14

This week's inspirational story comes from wonderful Indi...

This week's inspirational story comes from wonderful Indie Chick Julia Crane.





 Julia CraneMoving to the Middle EastSeparation was normal in my marriage. My husband was in themilitary, and usually gone six months a year. We had adapted quite well to theschedule. Of course, we had the normal period of adjustment when he would return,but that was part of the lifestyle. We were looking forward to his retirement,and being able to spend more time together as a family. That didn't work outquite as we expected. My husband was offered a job in Afghanistanthat would set us up to really retire. The kicker? It would last a year.We thought the sacrifice would be worth it, so off he went. One year became ayear and a half.
While he was gone I took care of our small business,running a gym. I loved it. It was very time-consuming, but it was also veryrewarding. It started to wear on me only when my pre-teen children complainedthat I was always at the gym, and never had time for them. Finally, I told myhusband that it was time for him to come home.
He put in his notice and started a stateside job. Thoughthe new job still required him to be gone for six months of the year, theabsences were in manageable blocks of two weeks. When he was home, he wouldtake care of the gym and I would have time off. It was perfect.
Then he got a call from a friend, with a job offer that wasjust too good to turn down…in Dubai.We discussed it, and decided he should take the job, even though we had a newone-year-old.
Not long after my husband left for Dubai, I was at the breaking point. I felttrapped with the business, our teens, and a one-year-old always needing myattention. I had no personal space, and I'm a person that requires time alone,or else I get cranky.
As luck would have it, the new job offered to bring familymembers over to live in Dubai.My first thought about moving to the Middle East?"Yeah, right." However, I researched Dubaiand was surprised at what I found. The country seemed very modern, and theschools sounded good.
So I told my husband, "Ok, we're coming." While I was bothnervous and excited, I was ready for a change, and moving to the Middle East sounded like just the adventure I needed.
When we got off the plane in October, the hot air hit myface and it felt like I had walked into a sauna. I thought, "Uh oh, what have Iagreed to?" Yes, the heat is hard to handle, but you learn to live your lifearound it. We do most things early in the morning or after the sun sets. It isvery much a nighttime culture. The city is beautiful and the Arabian Sea is breathtaking. I have grown comfortable living here, andeasily call it my home. Though I can now see myself here for a few years, thereare of course many things that I miss about America, and most of them involvefood. Some things are just impossible to find: I've searched high and low for aButterfinger, with no luck.
After a couple of months of enjoying my newfound free time,I eventually started to twiddle my thumbs. I was used to being busy, and withall the free time I needed to find something to fill the void. I saw an articlethat went into detail about how e-books had flung open many doors for writers.I thought that was interesting, and I mentioned it to my husband and he said hehad also seen many articles saying much the same thing. I jokingly said that Iwas going to write a novel. My husband, who believes I can do anything, thoughtit was a great idea. I have always enjoyed writing even though I had notwritten much since having children. As a teen, I used to mail short stories tomagazines and such, and like most avid readers, I always dreamed of somedaywriting a novel. Now I had my chance.
That same night I sat down to write, and the story quicklyformed in my mind. I knew I wanted to write a young adult novel that wouldinvolve my Irish roots. The story just seemed to form itself: I would get ideasat random times and rush to write them down. It was frustrating at times,because I need relative quiet to focus. As you can imagine, with two teens anda two-year-old, finding quiet time is not easy. I wrote most of "Coexist" lateat night when everyone was asleep. It took approximately three months to writethe first draft, while the revision and editing process lasted longer than theinitial writing.
A great part of the writing process for me has beeninteracting with other writers. I have met some amazing people from onlinewriting groups and chat rooms. I learned a great deal in a short amount oftime. I don't think this undertaking would have been nearly as fun without thecommunity I have found. Moving halfway across the world has allowed me to haveboth more time with family, and the ability to pursue a dream I've had since achild.
*** This is one story from Indie Chicks: 25 Women 25Personal Stories available on Amazonand Barnes& Noble. To read all of the stories, buy your copy today. Also included are sneak peeks into 25 novels! My paranormal romance novel, Coexist: Keegan'sChronicles #1, is one of the novels featured. All proceeds go to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for BreastCancer.

Coexist: Keegan'sChronicles #1AmazonUSAmazonUKBarnes& NobleSmashwords

Indie Chick Carol Davis Luce -- Self-Taught Late Bloomer ...

Indie Chick Carol Davis Luce -- Self-Taught Late Bloomer It's my pleasure to share Indie Chick, Carol Davis Luce's inspirational story on my blog this week. She shares a valuable lesson with us: it's never too late to follow your dreams. Please read her contribution to The Indie Chicks Anthology -- currently free on Kindle, Smashwords, and Nook.



SELF-TAUGHT LATE BLOOMER
Carol Davis Luce
            My motto is, “If I can do it, anyone can do it.” I wasn’t born to write. I didn’t aspire to be a writer from the time I could hold a Crayon. I could, however, draw, and make things take shape through form and color on paper and canvas, and that’s the path I traveled well into midlife. The artist’s life opened up my eyes and mind to expression and sometimes stories through composition on that blank eighteen by twenty-four inch stretched canvas. Then one day it changed.
            As a voracious reader, I was content to read what others wrote. I admired those writers who had mastered the craft. I was happy to dwell in their world for 300 pages, to laugh, cry, and be enlightened and surprised. Until one day when I closed a book by my favorite author and felt something was missing. The novel was a mystery/suspense with elements of romance. The suspense was killer. The romance, however, was lacking, missing those subtleties that resonated with me. I wanted more. The promise of romance was there, but fizzled somewhere along the way. For me, it wasn’t about graphic sex. It was about sexual tension, passion, love. After searching unsuccessfully for novels to satisfy my romantic suspense fixation, looking for just the right balance, I realized I had to write the book myself.
            Only I knew nothing about writing a novel, let alone a genre book with a sub-genre. So I went to the library and checked out a reference book titled, HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL. Easy enough, right? If dedication is easy, then it was easy because I was driven. My artist’s passion shifted to focus on the writer’s canvas. That canvas was structure, words, emotion, and truth. And the rest is history.
Well, almost.
I burned up two electric typewriters before investing in a computer. I checked out every book on the “book writing” reference shelf, and many grammar and stylebooks, and two years later, my 800-page opus, NIGHT STALKER, was finished—
Almost.
I learned about the important shaping process, without which most stories would be unreadable. Editing. The passion and pain of cutting and revising. Finding the jewels that lie buried in too many, or misguided, words. Three years and a dozen revisions later, 400 pages lighter, it found a home with a traditional publisher. Within the first few months of release, it went into three printings and became the flagship for the sub-genre "Woman in Jeopardy/Romantic Suspense" at Kensington Publishing.
            Where it started. . .
I left school at sixteen to marry my high school sweetheart. Six years later, as a housewife and mother, I channeled my artistic talent into sketching and painting, selling my work at a local art gallery. A quarter century later, I traded in my paints and brushes to hit the keyboard. Our three sons, not much for novel reading, are waiting for my books to be made into movies. That childhood sweetheart I married a lifetime ago is now my soul mate of 50 plus years. His encouragement fueled me, and his support allowed me to pursue my goals.  
            Going back to my motto of, “if I can do it, anyone can.” There has never been a more opportunistic time to try your hand at writing a book. Or taking the plunge and self-publishing. My decision to self-publish my upcoming suspense novels came about when I hit the proverbial brick wall after five published books. With a stalled career, I had a choice. Teach, or see my stories in print again. I chose the latter. My first self-published book is the short story trilogy, BROKEN JUSTICE, followed by my suspense novel, NIGHT WIDOW.
Agents and editors think they know what readers want. They don’t always know. Readers know what readers want, and they’re expressing their wants by buying books written by indie authors. Give yourself a hardy pat on the back if you’ve completed a manuscript, but the big applause goes to our devoted fans and readers. Without them, we would be nothing.
                                                       ***
Please check out Carol's books. Here's a link to her Amazon Author Page.

Indie Chick Carol Davis Luce -- Self-Taught Late BloomerI...

Indie Chick Carol Davis Luce -- Self-Taught Late BloomerIt's my pleasure to share Indie Chick, Carol Davis Luce's inspirational story on my blog this week. She shares a valuable lesson with us: it's never too late to follow your dreams. Please read her contribution to The Indie Chicks Anthology -- currently free on Kindle, Smashwords, and Nook.



SELF-TAUGHT LATE BLOOMER
Carol Davis Luce
            My motto is, "If I can do it, anyone can do it." I wasn't born to write. I didn't aspire to be a writer from the time I could hold a Crayon. I could, however, draw, and make things take shape through form and color on paper and canvas, and that's the path I traveled well into midlife. The artist's life opened up my eyes and mind to expression and sometimes stories through composition on that blank eighteen by twenty-four inch stretched canvas. Then one day it changed.
            As a voracious reader, I was content to read what others wrote. I admired those writers who had mastered the craft. I was happy to dwell in their world for 300 pages, to laugh, cry, and be enlightened and surprised. Until one day when I closed a book by my favorite author and felt something was missing. The novel was a mystery/suspense with elements of romance. The suspense was killer. The romance, however, was lacking, missing those subtleties that resonated with me. I wanted more. The promise of romance was there, but fizzled somewhere along the way. For me, it wasn't about graphic sex. It was about sexual tension, passion, love. After searching unsuccessfully for novels to satisfy my romantic suspense fixation, looking for just the right balance, I realized I had to write the book myself.
            Only I knew nothing about writing a novel, let alone a genre book with a sub-genre. So I went to the library and checked out a reference book titled, HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL. Easy enough, right? If dedication is easy, then it was easy because I was driven. My artist's passion shifted to focus on the writer's canvas. That canvas was structure, words, emotion, and truth. And the rest is history.
Well, almost.
I burned up two electric typewriters before investing in a computer. I checked out every book on the "book writing" reference shelf, and many grammar and stylebooks, and two years later, my 800-page opus, NIGHT STALKER, was finished—
Almost.
I learned about the important shaping process, without which most stories would be unreadable. Editing. The passion and pain of cutting and revising. Finding the jewels that lie buried in too many, or misguided, words. Three years and a dozen revisions later, 400 pages lighter, it found a home with a traditional publisher. Within the first few months of release, it went into three printings and became the flagship for the sub-genre "Woman in Jeopardy/Romantic Suspense" at Kensington Publishing.
            Where it started. . .
I left school at sixteen to marry my high school sweetheart. Six years later, as a housewife and mother, I channeled my artistic talent into sketching and painting, selling my work at a local art gallery. A quarter century later, I traded in my paints and brushes to hit the keyboard. Our three sons, not much for novel reading, are waiting for my books to be made into movies. That childhood sweetheart I married a lifetime ago is now my soul mate of 50 plus years. His encouragement fueled me, and his support allowed me to pursue my goals.  
            Going back to my motto of, "if I can do it, anyone can." There has never been a more opportunistic time to try your hand at writing a book. Or taking the plunge and self-publishing. My decision to self-publish my upcoming suspense novels came about when I hit the proverbial brick wall after five published books. With a stalled career, I had a choice. Teach, or see my stories in print again. I chose the latter. My first self-published book is the short story trilogy, BROKEN JUSTICE, followed by my suspense novel, NIGHT WIDOW.
Agents and editors think they know what readers want. They don't always know. Readers know what readers want, and they're expressing their wants by buying books written by indie authors. Give yourself a hardy pat on the back if you've completed a manuscript, but the big applause goes to our devoted fans and readers. Without them, we would be nothing.
                                                       ***
Please check out Carol's books. Here's a link to her Amazon Author Page.

Christine Kersey-Indie Chick.

This week's Inspirational Indie Chick story belongs to Christine Kersey  Never Give Up On Your DreamsI love to read and lose myself in a good story – forget all that is going on around me and be in the story with the characters. One day in 1997 I finished reading a novel by Joy Fielding and realized she hadn't needed to be an expert in a particular field, like medicine or law, to write a good suspense story. This fact inspired me to try my hand at writing. It also didn't hurt that we'd just gotten our first computer and I can type much faster than I can write longhand.
At this time in my life I was thirty-two and my youngest child was three. I also had three other children who were in elementary school. A stay-at-home mom, I was able to carve out some time to work on this project. At first I didn't tell anyone what I was doing. What if I couldn't complete it? What if I failed? After a short time I told my husband, mother, and sister and they were supportive.
I kept working at it, day by day, until after about four weeks I'd finished a complete novel. At that point it was nowhere near ready to be published, but I'd proven to myself that I could write a novel with a beginning, middle, and end. I continued working on the story, then put it aside and began working on another.
I gathered the courage to have a few friends read it and they all said they loved it. Encouraged, I decided to attend a conference called Bouchercon , which is for fans of mysteries. At the conference I mingled with published writers and talked to an agent or two. Afterwards I sent queries to several agents, but none of them were interested in my completed novel.
Shortly afterwards I started working part-time and didn't spend as much time writing as I had before. When my youngest child started first grade I decided to go back to college full-time and earn my degree. Over the next four years I did very little fiction writing and focused on getting my education.
As I approached my final semester my schedule wasn't quite as heavy and I decided to do some revisions on one of my two completed novels. When I felt the story was ready, I submitted it to a small, regional publisher. In April, 2004 I graduated with a B.S. in Information Technology. That same week the publisher got back to me and said they were interested in publishing my book, but first they wanted me to do revisions. Though they hadn't offered a contract yet, I did the revisions and resubmitted the manuscript. They were pleased, but wanted yet more revisions. In 2004 the job market was down and I was spending a lot of time job-hunting, but I did the revisions as requested.
In October of that year I finally found a full-time position and within two weeks of starting my new job, the publisher got back to me and offered a contract. Needless to say, I was thrilled. Seven and a half years after I'd written my first book and I was finally getting published!
I was assigned an editor and worked closely with her. The book hit bookstores in July, 2005. I thought I was on my way. I had one book published with a real publisher, so now I was set, right?
The book sold reasonably well, but when I submitted another manuscript, my publisher decided not to publish it. Discouraged, I focused on my family and my job and didn't spend very much time writing. However, I still read as much as ever. In fact, when the nook eReader became available I bought one and started loading dozens of books onto it. I was in reader heaven.
I'd had my nook for nearly a year before I caught on to the possibilities indie publishing presented. The book I'd published with a traditional publisher had gone out of print and I was able to get the rights back. That book, No Way Out, was the first book I made available as an indie publisher. The first month it was available I sold exactly one copy. But that one sale was very exciting. Since then I've published three more novels and have sold thousands of copies. I love that I have complete control over what I publish. I also love to read the work of other indie authors. There are so many talented people that are now able to publish their work.
I'm glad I didn't give up on my dream to be published and am so excited at the endless opportunities that are now available. One thing I've learned is that if you persist in following your dreams, eventually you will be able to accomplish what you've set out to do, whatever it may be.
That three-year-old child that sat near me as I began my writing career is now a senior in high school. Whether or not I had chosen to continue writing, time inexorably moved forward. It's never too late to follow your dreams, but why wait?
Visit my blog
No Way Out, about a woman whose husband disappears, is available at Amazon and Barnes & Nobl
He Loves Me Not is currently only available at Amazon, although if you have a nook, email me and I'll send you a free epub copy.
Don't Look Back is the sequel to He Loves Me Not and is available at Amazon as well as Barnes & Noble.


 
 This story is part of the Indie Chick anthology.You can purchase your copy here.Amazon USAAmazon UK All proceeds are going to a breast cancer charity.

Read my inspirational story!

 
 This is my story in the Indie Chick anthology.You can purchase your copy here.Amazon USAAmazon UK All proceeds are going to a breast cancer charity. French Fancies In 1993 I walked out on my sad and abusive marriage, one that I had stuck with for seven years. At the time I jointly owned a shop with my ex-husband and my Mother, so we had to sell the business when the marriage broke down.If I thought that was hard it was nothing to what I had to endure the following six years. To make ends meet, I had to work two jobs for 70-80 hours a week over 6½ days. Take my word when I say it wasn't fun.But onwards and upwards, when Mum retired we made a spur of the moment decision to leave England and move to France. We'd never set foot in the country before we came out here to house hunt, I know, we're either brave or stupid. I like to think we're the former, but I sometimes wonder if that's the case!We bought a farmhouse and barns that needed total renovation. In 6 months I decorated 22 rooms while a local builder created a gîte (a holiday home) out of a couple of the barns. After the renovations were completed I grew bored with my 'early retirement' and enrolled in a creative writing course. I threw myself into it and over the next 4-5 years I sat down and wrote three romances and two thrillers.In October 2009, I discovered the writing site run by Harper Collins called Authonomy where I uploaded the first 10,000 words of my thriller Impeding Justice. It took me 8 months to reach the editor's desk where I received a favourable review from a Harper Collins editor. The trouble was they weren't taking on any thriller writers at that time, they were only interested in printing Celebrity Autobiographies!Therefore, in October 2010 I decided to upload Impeding Justice as an ebook. It took a while to take off but in January 2011 sales really started gathering momentum, but it wasn't until I released the second book in the series, Final Justice that sales really took off. After selling over 30,000 books in April, I was in the fortunate position of having several agents knocking on my virtual door. I finally agreed terms and signed a contract with top New York agent, Richard Curtis. I sent him Cruel Justice the third book in the thriller series and he tried for 4 months to get me a traditional publishing contract, but at the moment he admits he's finding it difficult to place any books with publishers because of the Indie revolution, which I'm extremely proud to be part of.During last Summer, I edited the romances I wrote at the beginning of my journey. I uploaded A Time To Heal towards the end of August and immediately received a couple of 5 star reviews (no they weren't from my family, they don't know I write!) some of them were from my thriller fans who were equally impressed by my romance endeavours.At the beginning of September I uploaded A Time For Change, another romance which is actually a TRUE story of how my dear friends met and fell in love. Obviously they're names have been changed, the story has a mystery element to it too. In October 2011, I uploaded the third book in my thriller series, Cruel Justice, which is actually the prequel to my best-seller Impeding Justice. It's been very well received and has even reached #2 in the Police Procedural chart on Amazon.I'm very fortunate to be able to write full-time (it's addictive, don't you know!) and have several more projects outlined that I intend tackling over the coming winter months.This is how my day pans out, first thing, providing it isn't raining, I take my two dogs for a walk, actually they tend to drag me round our small village. Then I sit down to answer any emails and facebook messages I've received overnight from fans (yes I do have them) I then set out to write a minimum of 2-3000 words per day, before I dip into hours of necessary promoting. That's the hardest part of being an Indie writer, the fact that we have to promote ourselves long and hard. I used to be quite a shy person, but I've had to overcome that quickly. I think deep down, every writer would love to be a recluse and be able to focus full-time on their creations, unfortunately that's unrealistic in an Indie world.Do I ever think about my life back in England? No, never, but my ex features heavily in my books. When I need to think up a baddie character it's his image I picture in my mind. As for my murder scenes, I find them VERY easy to write. LOL.
 

 

It's a pleasure to welcome fab Indie Chick Barbara Silkstone.

HAVE YOU EVER LOST A HAT?By Barbara Silkstone


I lost everything including my home, my car, and even myretirement accounts. I was physically attacked inside and outside a courtbuilding. My daughter and baby granddaughter were threatened. I came at the badguys like a mother tiger. A few years earlier I had agreed to testify against areal estate developer in a civil racketeering case. He was obscenely rich andcould afford a hanger full of Lear jets, four sneering lawyers, and a greedyjudge. In an effort to discredit my testimony in his upcoming trial and to frighten me out of appearing against him,his team of legal manipulators pasted together a bogus suit against me designedto keep me tied up in court and unable to function. They underestimated my senseof justice.I'd been sitting on the witness stand for the betterpart of a day… one of many in my five-year"trial." The judge, forgetting her microphone was on, had just proclaimedme "a pretty tough cookie." I'd given up expecting justice. It was much toolate for fairness. I was in an out-of-body state observing my own funeral andlaughing about it. [image error] When the four-hundred pound lawyer asked me if I'dever lost a hat, I thought one of us had lost our minds. I was pretty sure itwasn't me. He blinked as if he realized the absurdity of what he asked anddropped the line of inquiry. The question struck my funny bone and sent me intogiggle-fits. And that was the moment when TheSecret Diary of Alice in Wonderland, Age 42 and Three-Quarters was born.Within a few months the lawyers I hired to help me suckedup every penny I could muster. When I was broke, they walked off the case. Unlikein criminal cases, defendants in civil litigation must pay for their ownattorneys. No money – no lawyers. I was on my own. I needed to defend myself.But how when the case was nonsense? How do you fight silly? The lost hat question was a perfect exampleof the charges brought against me. But the more ridiculous their charges, thestronger and feistier I grew. For each thing they threw at me, I came back thatmuch harder, roaring and taking notes for my someday book.Since I was a child my driving passion has been towrite. In Catholic grade school I started an underground newspaper. When ournun forbade me to continue, I carried the paper further underground. While Icontinued to write as an adult, life eventually got in the way of living and mywriting took a backseat. But now as I sat in the courtroom I was inspired andchomping at the bit to get this real-life fairytale on paper.Anger boiled in me as I saw the precious time I hadcarved out for writing being eaten up as I defended myself in bizarreproceedings. I was spending all my time in the law library studying the Rulesof Civil Procedure in order to write Motions and Pleadings and filing themagainst the court in such rapid fire I would have made Rambo back off. Earning a living on commission sales is impossible whenyou are spending 14 hours a day fighting a pack of legal sharks. I had to takethe creepiest part-time jobs… things that still give me nightmares. Things likeworking for a gold broker who brought us the teeth from dead people. We wereexpected to separate the gold from the molars – not unlike the lawyers I wasdealing with. I needed the money but not that badly. I ran to the nearest exit.Locked in a deadly struggle with the notorious realestate developer, I chose that time to become romantically involved with a Britwho, it turned out was not what he seemed to be. I stepped into the perfectstorm. The Brit's upper-class accent and polished manners hid a not-too-cleverconman, but clever enough to fool my starry eyes. The developer and the conmanclashed in a rage of wicked deeds. I was sandwiched between them. [image error]
Is The SecretDiary of Alice in Wonderland, Age 42 and Three-Quarters true? Would LewisCarroll say Alice in Wonderland wastrue? The emotions are real and still raw, but the journey was worth theresults. Would I do it again? You bet your tushie. My sense of justice wouldnot permit otherwise. But I would not be quite so naïve. I would expect slimytricks and dirty pool. Merely because someone wears a robe and speaks of thelaw does not mean they abide by the law."The Hail Mary Pass" refers to any very long forwardpass made in desperation with only a small chance of success. It's used infootball and occasionally courtrooms. My Hail Mary Pass knocked the bad guys on their butts.I filed a Petition for a Writ of Certiorari, which is a request to the UnitedStates Supreme Court asking that Court to review the decision of a lower court.I cast a spotlight on their dark shenanigans. And as my Petition worked its way along the queue inthe United States Supreme Court, making it almost to the finish line, the judgeon my case went strangely silent, the notorious developer disappeared, and theBrit wandered off.  I had become a writerbut not in the way I had envisioned. I was a self-taught legal guerrilla whohad managed to land her petition to be heard by the highest court in the UnitedStates… right through the goal post. Unfortunately, in the end corruption wonand I barely escaped with a toothbrush and a change of clothes.Were those five years tough? Yes. But I fought becauseI knew I couldn't live with myself if I rolled into a ball. I fought with thewit and sarcasm of Alice in the original Alicein Wonderland. Standing on the outside watching the Jabberwocky operate on the inside. I knew that someday my story, fictionalizedwith absolutely no resemblance to anyone living or dead and the names changedto protect the corrupt, would make a darn good yarn. And each step of the way,like Lewis Carroll and my out-of-body ordeal, I would allow the action to theskate on the edge of logic. [image error] In The SecretDiary of Alice in Wonderland, Age 42 and Three-Quarters, a few murders havebeen thrown in for comic relief, and the characters have been shaken and stirred, then presented in a Pythonesquelight. Any similarities to the jerks I dealt with are purely coincidental.Have I everlost a hat? Probably.But did I retainmy passion for writing, and even kick it up a notch?  Absolutely.  Everyadventure contains a novel.Sometime youhave to pay dearly for it.
~Quoting the Cheshire Cat:"Would you tell me, please, whichway I ought to go from here?" (Alice)"That depends a good deal on whereyou want to get to," said the Cat."I don't much care where---"said Alice."Then it doesn't matter which wayyou go," said the Cat. "---So long as I getsomewhere," Alice added as an explanation."Oh you're sure to do that,"said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough." [image error]This is one story from Indie Chicks: 25Women 25 Personal Stories available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. To readall the stories buy your copy today. All proceeds go to fund breast cancerresearch.
About the AuthorBarbara Silkstone is the best-selling author of TheFractured Fairy Tales series that currently includes: The Secret Diary of Alice in Wonderland, Age 42 and Three-Quarters;Wendy and the Lost Boys; and LondonBroil. Silkstone'swriting has been described as "perfectly paced and pitched – shades of JanetEvanovich and Carl Hiaasen – without seeming remotely derivative. Fast movingaction that shoots from the hip with bullet-proof characterization."Wendyand the Lost Boys topped the charts in comedy, climbing over Tina Fey, SophieKinsella, and Ellen DeGeneres. The Secret Diary of Alice in Wonderland, Age 42and Three-Quarters has been a consistent best seller in comedy. Both Wendy andAlice have been in the top 20 Amazon comedies at the same time. Silkstone hasbeen fortunate enough to take part in writing workshops with Stephen King,Robert B. Parker, and James Michener. She lives in South Florida but hasno time to visit the beach.BarbaraSilkstone loves to hear from her readers. You can write to her at: barbara_silkstone@yahoo.comOrvisit her at: Barb's WireeBooks & More   http://barbswire-ebooksandmore.blogsp...   http://twitter.com/#!/barbsilkstoneFacebook  http://www.facebook.com/people/Barbara-Silkstone/100000778601230Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/barbsilkstone/
                                                Fractured FairyTales by Silkstone                                                         Criminally Funny Fables
TheSecret Diary of Alice in Wonderland, Age 42 and Three-QuartersThis author has a uniquenarrative voice, and reading the story is like taking a smooth slide intoAlice's surreal world. The premise is outstanding – a classic we all love, witha contemporary, intelligent twist.                            ~ ElizabethLindberg, author Upper West Side StoriesPurchasefor your Kindle at: AmazonPurchasefor your Nook at: Barnes& Noble
Wendyand the Lost BoysBeaware, this is not the Peter Pan story you want your kids reading. It isclearly intended for adult readers. Yet it appeals to the childlike part of usthat loved the classic original stories. Combine that childlike love withmodern politics and technology, and you get this smart, snarky, hilariousmystery. The story is richly developed and leaves you guessing until the veryend. I am liking this grown-up version of Peter Pan even more than the original.                                  ~ Tiffany Harkleroad for Tiffany's BookshelfPurchasefor your Kindle at: AmazonPurchasefor your Nook at: Barnes& Noble
LondonBroil — the sequel to Wendy and the Lost BoysThesnarky Python sequel to Wendy and the Lost Boys. A murderous rollercoaster ridethrough London during a killer heat wave.                                                                                          ~ Ravan ReviewsPurchasefor your Kindle at: AmazonPurchasefor your Nook at: Barnesand Noble
Zo White –coming  Summer 2012

Sibel Hodge- Indie Chick extraoridnaire!

Today I have the wonderful Sibel Hodge sharing her Inspirational story.




From 200 rejections to Amazon top200!Sibel Hodge
Ever sinceI was old enough to scrawl my first word, which was Halibaaaaa, I knew I wanted to write books. OK, so the word didn'tactually make sense, and it might take a little longer for me to actually stringa whole sentence together, but that didn't put me off. I was going to writebooks and no one would stop me…
From whenI was really young, my mum encouraged me to read. "If you can read books,you'll never be bored," I remember her telling me. I secretly think it was aploy to keep me out of her hair and quiet for a while. I was always a loud kidwith lots of energy, and always getting into some sort of trouble with the boysdown our street. (Yep, even then I was a sucker for boys!). After discoveringthe wonderful world of books, I thought I'd have a go myself, and rememberscribbling down stories whenever I had a spare moment. Shame I was only six,and there was no way anyone would publish a book with I Want Big Girls' Knickers in the title.
When I wasin secondary school my favourite subject was English language. I'd lose myselffor hours. And even though I hadn't thought about my forthcoming career beforeI left (apart from being Wonder Woman or an astronaut), I knew, even then, Ihad a love of creating. I also loved to make people laugh from an early age. Inthe beginning, it wasn't intentional. I was always saying ridiculous thingsthat I thought were quite serious. Like the time I went to the butchers shopwith my nan, and the lady behind the counter asked where I was from. "South America," I said. (I know, where the hell did thatcome from? I must've had an overactive imagination from the start.) So whenpeople started laughing at me, I thought, hey, this is pretty fun! We live insuch a hectic world and laughter is a perfect way to de-stress. Because mypersonality is quirky, fun-loving, and slightly nuts, it was probably a giventhat I would eventually write chick lit, although I have recently delved intothe dark side of my brain (which is a pretty scary place to be sometimes!) andwritten a psychological thriller.
But when Ileft school no one mentioned writing as a career. It was all boring things likesecretarial jobs, travel agents, office work. I didn't even know about creativewriting courses until about ten years ago! I think they considered that writingwasn't a "proper career." No one suggested journalism or further education inwriting. So what was a girl to do? Although my mum wanted me to go toUniversity and study to be something like a doctor or lawyer (eeek!), I didn't have a clue what Iwanted to do for a career, so I flitted from one job to the next, trying tofind something that interested me, and eventually ended up working for thepolice for ten years. So there I was, too busy paying the mortgage, workingshifts, and living in the rat race of life to have the proper time oropportunity to write a novel. It didn't stop me trying, though.
It wasdrastic things like splitting up with a boyfriend that made me start my firstnovel when I was about seventeen. I never got further than the first threechapters, though, because I didn't have a clue what I was doing, other thanusing a typewriter! Then I started another one (I got dumped again – can yousee a pattern here?) when I was about twenty-three, and ditto (I'd hate forthose to ever see the light of day). I just knew that I loved writing and therefore it stood toreason that one day I'd do it, didn't it? And although I look back now and think I wish I'dstarted writing earlier, actually, I have to say, that it would've been badtiming. Back then I wouldn't have had anything to really write about. A lot ofthe things that go into my books now are based on my experience of life. PeopleI've met, places I've been, books I've read, things I've done, struggles I'veachieved. At twenty-three, what did I really know about any of that?
Andthen five years ago, hubby and I had had enough of the UK. We got fed up with the constantgrey weather, bills that seemed to increase as you looked at them, workingconstantly to pay them, and never having quality time for ourselves or ourfamily. Right, it was time to make my childhood dream come true and movesomewhere exotic, where the cost of living was lower, and we would actuallyhave time to enjoy each other and life again. Then I would finally have thetime and opportunity to dedicate to writing. Yes, we'd have to sacrifice a lotof things to achieve it, but it would be worth it in the end. So we moved to North Cyprus, and it was like my brain suddenly said, Hallellujah! Nowwe divide our time between Cyprusand the UK.
Ididn't actively think about what I was going to write, but a year after we'dmoved there I had an exciting idea for a story, using my unique TurkishCypriot/British cultural heritage, and my debut romantic comedy Fourteen Days Later was born. Then I actually became theguinea pig for the sequel, My Perfect Wedding! But it was all very wellcompleting my dream of writing a book, but until it was published, no one wouldget to read it.
So I started queryinghundreds of agents and publishers. I got too many rejections to even count! OK,small white lie, a while ago I did count them out of morbid curiosity, and itwas a whopping two hundred!
I did come close acouple of times to being traditionally published, but it never quite workedout. It was either, "one group of editors liked it but another didn't", or "thechick lit market is saturated", or "we love it but…"
When I first lookedinto publishing independently, platforms like Amazon Kindle didn't supportinternational authors. So the way I saw it, I had two choices. Either I couldwrite another book, hone my writing skills and learn all I could about mycraft, and wait for an opportunity to come up, or I could let all the rejectionletters get me down, think my writing career was over before it had begun, andstick my head in the oven! Since heat tends to turn my curls into a ball offrizz, it was no contest, really. I wrote my next novel, a chick lit mysterycalled The Fashion Police, and waited. Because I knew,I just knew, that I COULD do this. I could write novels that people wanted toread. If only I could get the chance.[image error]In the meantime, I alsoentered several writing competitions. And while I was still getting the dreadedrejections, Fourteen Days Later was shortlisted for the Harry Bowling Prize2008 and received a Highly Commended by The Yeovil Literary Prize 2009. And TheFashion Police was a runner up in the Chapter One Promotions Novel Competition2010 (and later nominated for the Best Novel with Romantic Elements 2010 by TheRomance Reviews). Surely I was doing something right, wasn't I? But I STILLcouldn't get a publisher!
Then last year, whenAmazon opened up their doors to non-US authors, I uploaded Fourteen Days Laterand The Fashion Police onto their Kindle store. I couldn't believe it when Ifinally saw my books on sale. It was scary, rewarding, exciting, amazing – somany experiences rolled into one.
But what if no oneliked my novels? What if I had all bad reviews? What if all the two hundredrejections were right? What if, what if…?
Time for a deep breath,Sibel. If you want to be an author, you have to repeat this mantra everyday… "Ican do this. I can do this. I CAN do this."
So I did.
And boy am I glad Idid! The first month with Fourteen Days Later and The Fashion Police, I sold 44books (another eeek!). Then I released my third novel, a romantic comedy calledMy Perfect Wedding, and later released my secondchick lit mystery Be Careful What You Wish For. In the last 6months alone I've sold over 40,000 ebooks, and all my novels are consistentlyin the Amazon top 100 genre categories for humor, contemporary romance, comedy,and romantic suspense. My highest overall sales ranking to date is 136, justmissing out on the Amazon top 100 bestseller charts. Considering there are over900,000 Kindle books on Amazon, that's not bad!
And this is one lessonI've learned in the last couple of years…You can do anything you wantto in life. It may mean you have to go a different route than you originallyplanned, but if you're determined enough and believe in yourself, you canovercome any obstacles.
So I'm toasting all youwomen out there with my glass of wine. Cheers to dreams and making them cometrue! Looks like I got my big girls' knickers after all!
You can find Sibel's books inpaperback and all ebook formats. For more info, please check out her website[image error]
 This is onestory from Indie Chicks: 25 Women 25 Personal Stories availableon Amazon  and Barnes & Noble . To read all of the stories, buy yourcopy today.

Pirates robbing us!

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Well on top of the crappy week I had last week, this week so far has topped that by a long way.


I spent most of the day yesterday issuing Take Down Notices to numerous Torrent sites that had pirated my thrillers.


I'm not going to give the links here for obvious reasons. One site/forum I joined even had the audacity to say it was free publicity for me! Are they warped?


I noticed my books and my own bio on the forum so I left a comment on the page. Here's their response.

Mel Comley wrote:
THESE ARE PIRATED COPIES. THIEVES!!!!

I've issued you with a take down notice with immediate effect!

No need to get so upset, Ms Comley. You only had to ask: the post has been removed and also the free publicity that came with it.

merry Cheeky sods! Today I noticed another site touting my books, it also pointed to  guidelines I had to follow when issuing the Take Down notice, if these weren't adhered to then my books would remain on their site.What the heck? What guidelines did your site follow when you were thieving my books then?I also discovered a very interest fact whilst investigating this site. Most of the books featured have recently been FREE in the KDP Select program.Which kind of makes a mockery of Amazon's exclusivity clause, doesn't it?I've written to KDP today to ask their views on this matter. I'm dying to see their response.  

Christine DeMaio-Rice - an Indie Chick Inspiration

This week's inspirational Indie Chick story comes from Christine DeMaio-Rice



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HOW A BIG YELLOW TRUCK CHANGED MY LIFE


(for the better)
An orange peel grapple is a big machine. Excavator on the bottom. Long arm in the middle. And a metal grapple on the end that looks like a horror movie claw. The base spins. The arm moves up and down. The grapple grabs stuff like SUVs and big piles of metal.
You may come across one while driving, and if you have a little boy in the car, you may have to pull over to watch the thing move cars into a tractor trailer. Otherwise, nothing about this machine will rock your world.
But an orange peel grapple changed my life.
My life was a complete disaster at the time. Though I had a beautiful baby boy and a good husband, I had a job in an industry I swore I would never return to, at a company that wanted nothing more than to suck the blood directly from my heart with a curly straw. This, after I had already sold all the blood in my heart to the film industry, which after a few meetings and screenwriting awards, looked like it might want to take a sip from that straw.
A sip, because as good as things were looking, I saw a long road in front of me. My work was not "commercial enough," and my manager had made it clear that years would pass before I would be able to convince anyone that this lack of commerciality was a quality that was, well, commercial.
But no. My husband lost his job, and I found work in the fashion industry soon after. What I rapidly discovered was that, though out-of-towners could schedule meetings back-to-back all over town, Angelenos were expected to take a meeting at the last minute, or blithely accept a rescheduling. My boss, on the other hand, had no interest in moving around my personal days, and my sick days dwindled in my first three months on the job. It took only a few months for the meetings to dry up and for me to start writing a Santa Claus script out of desperation.
So, the blood-sucking fashion job with the inflexible hours was right next to a scrap yard, which apparently opened at the crack of dawn because when I got there at seven thirty every morning, the orange peel grapple was already grabbing away. If I had a minute, I watched it go up and down as I clutched my coffee, and I thought, one day I should get a video camera and film this because my son would love it. Really love it.
My son was about eighteen months old and just learning to talk. I missed him while I was at work, adored him when he was awake and with me, and the rest of the time, I found room to resent him for taking me away from writing. He was then, and has remained, a fireball of energy. His teacher alternated between calling him a Jack Russell terrier and a buzz saw. He is also obsessive. Right now, he has a room full of Legos. Before that, it was Thomas the Tank Engine, and before that, it was trucks. Big yellow trucks. He wouldn't fall asleep unless he gripped a toy truck in each fist. When he received a Tonka loader for Christmas, it was love at first sight. He called it "lolo."
One morning, with the vision of that big 'lolo' that I would later know as an orange peel grapple dancing in my head, I dialed a friend's number. I'd known this man from Brooklyn, and he'd come to Los Angeles a few years earlier to attend the American Film Institute. Most importantly, he had a camera. When I got his answering machine, instead of asking him for the camera, I said something else entirely, something like, "Hey, wanna produce a kid's video together? Here's the pitch. Trucks. Okay, bye."
That moment may not seem pivotal, but most turning points don't when they happen. That moment, I took control of my creative life. My friend called me back the minute he got up, and we began the journey toward becoming business owners. We did not pitch the idea around town, and we did not ask permission to bring the work to the public. We put the DVDs on Createspace, and eventually had to hold inventory to meet the demand.
Lolo Productions and the Totally Trucks series have had ups and downs, but the process taught me two things. One, my concepts need to be simple. If I can't pitch it in five words, it's not a concept I should develop. My second lesson is that I can be in control of my product and my creative life. If I think something is worthwhile, I can bring it to my customers. Becoming the producer and publisher of my work means I understand now what agents and studio executives meant when they said "commercial."
Without my son, I never would have taken the life-sucking job. And without that job, there would have been no orange peel grapple. And without that scrapyard, there would have been no Totally Trucks. No eye for the commercial and no control of self-publishing. Who knows what I would have made without all the things that pissed me off for interrupting my work.

website: http://fashionismurder.com
amazon link:  Dead Is the New Black (Fashion Avenue Mysteries)
Nook:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dead-is-the-new-black-christine-demaio-rice/1105858865Christine's story is just one of 25 that can be found in Indie Chicks Anthology which is raising money for charity. [image error]

Interview with Elita Daniels.

This week I had a blast interviewing Indie writer Elita Daniels. She's just released a new book called The Darkening of Deacon.

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1. When and why did you decide to become an Indie writer?
I was twenty-five when I decided I wanted to become a writer. All my life I'd had an intense interest in making up stories and characters, but I didn't dream of becoming a writer.  I just wanted to act. I badly wanted to make movies. Pursuing that dream I wrote a screenplay for Project Green Light and made top one hundred. My brother noticed I wrote very descriptively and suggested I try a novel, so I started playing around with the idea. But it was when my old dog passed away that the idea for "Tree of Life" came together about a mortal raised by immortals. And I haven't looked back since. I love writing. I get the same satisfaction out of it as if I were making a movie.

2. What genre do you write in and what genre do you prefer to read?
I don't write in any particular genre. I tend to write instinctively without too much thought of a target audience or genre. Wherever the story and characters take me I go. The same goes for reading. I read whatever happens to capture my interest, which is usually books from the 1700s through to early 1900s. I do love fantasy, but I find it difficult to find a modern book that suits my tastes.

3. Where do you sell most books, USA or UK, Amazon or Barnes and Noble?
We sell most of our books from Amazon USA, however we're looking at focusing more on the UK market in the next few months.

4. During your childhood who was your biggest influence?
Other than my mother I didn't really have any big positive influences. Although I did have a huge crush on Nick Carter from the Backstreet Boys, haha.

5. Are you fortunate enough to write full-time?
I am. In fact, I spend far too much time on the computer writing. My husband and I need a life!

6. If Hollywood came knocking who would you want to play your main character?
Ooh now this is a delicious question. Any talk of my stories getting adapted into a movie gets my heart racing. I would ask for Garrett Hedlund. He's the person I saw in my mind for Deacon.

7. Name 6 people, dead or alive, you'd love to have as guests seated around your dinner-table.
I would love to have Peter Jackson, Guy de Maupassent, Christopher Paolini, Garrett Hedlund, Emily Bronte, Tim Burton. Wow, what a crowd that would be!

8. What one piece of advice have you found the most important in your writing career?
Write instinctively. Ignore mean people.

9. What are your plans for the coming year?
I planning on having "My Boyfriend is a zombie" finished and then I'll start on book two in the series. I would also like to prepare for a book tour and meet readers. And I'm hoping to move closer to my family.

10. And finally, if you were stranded on a desert island what 3 books would you choose to have with you?
Well, if I was stranded the books have to be both entertaining and comforting. So I would choose Eragon by Christopher Paolini, Fallen by Lauren Kate, and Fanny Hill by John Cleland.


You can purchase The Darkening of Deacon at the following links:

Amazon US link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004477YCM
Amazon UK link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004477YCM


Elita's main site: http://elitadaniels.com
Blog: http://elitadaniels.com/blog