Lizzy Ford's Blog, page 47

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Published on May 26, 2012 10:27

Phoenix Comicon – Day 2: Outlandish, comical and furry

I had no rough lessons to learn today. I had a blast! The pic of the man to the left sums up Comicon thus far: A bit outlandish, comical and um, furry. I’ve met some awesome people who came by my table and handed out tons of minibooks, bookmarks and business cards! A couple came back from their visit yesterday, which I took as an awesome sign. We’re adding new members to Lizzyland!

Below are some more pics!

This is the dancing box-man. I liked him, because his costume was cheap to make, and he charged people .25 to see him dance. He made .75 in the five minutes he stood in front of my table. A true entrepreneur!

My booth neighbors, Cooper (sketch artist) and Brandon (fantasy writer.) Cooper drew me a picture of a dragon and accepted a cookie in payment. He’s pretty cool!

My other booth neighbors, Mike and Nate! Mike is obsessed with brightly colored robots and draws all day long during the convention. We bought one of his small paintings to take home with us!

Stay tuned for day 3!

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Published on May 25, 2012 19:47

Phoenix Comicon – Day 1: People like to buy books

Thursday (yesterday) was day one at the Phoenix Comic Convention. It was a half day, and I was so excited, I grinned like a fool the whole time! I drove up from Tucson in the morning and set up everything then met my booth neighbors (Mike the painter and Cooper the sketch artist whose manager is Brandon, a fantasy writer.) They’re awesome!

I met brilliant fantasy indie author M. Edward McNally, whose books I’ve featured a few times here in Lizzyland. It was awesome to meet him after talking to him online for almost a year! I also met Erin Lausten, another indie romance author of steampunk and timetravel romances. She’s super cool and located here in Arizona! Check out her website for details on her books. I’ll see if she wants to do a book feature here on Lizzyland, too!

So I get here, set up, meet people, put on my smiley face. I even read the fire code and bought metal displays so no one threw me out. I was sitting on top of the world. I forgot a pen (bad writer) and borrowed one from Cooper, thinking that would be the worst thing that happened. I was confident and happy, and thought, exhibiting is a piece of cake! When the Comicon opened, I thought: I’m the BEST WRITER EVER!

And then something happened. I was talking to a nice lady who looooved the Rhyn Trilogy and War of Gods books. She was so excited, she wanted to buy ALL of them.

I’m thinking, Oh. Really? Seriously? Let me just reach under the table to grab a book … And then it hit me. The fatal flaw of my plan. I forgot to bring copies of my books to sell to people. DAMMIT, LIZZY! It’s like trying to take over the world but forgetting where you parked your World Domination Tank.

Life in my books is easy, but real life often baffles me. My husband noticed me when I got locked into a parking lot behind a building and couldn’t get out. He fell in love with me a few weeks later. He went with me to a drive thru and watched me try to order something. I got so flustered, I almost left in tears. (Who puts mayo on a cheeseburger?) So, yeah. Sometimes, Real Life and Lizzy are not always in the same library let alone on the same page.

So, here I am, talking to people who want to buy my books, and I’ve got nothing to sell them! I brought display copies and free promo material but no books. And I’m thinking, do they think I’m the WORST AUTHOR EVER? Cuz right about now, they’re right.

Anyhoo, lesson learned: people like to dress up like Star Trek characters and zombie survival crews. They also like to buy books.

Wish me luck for day two … :-)

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Published on May 25, 2012 08:52

Book Feature: “Under an Orange Sun, Some Days Are Blue” by Irving Belateche

Please welcome to Lizzyland author Irving Belateche who’s sharing his inspirational novel, “Under An Orange Sun, Some Days Are Blue“.

“Under An Orange Sun” offers a unique take on overcoming obstacles and finding inspiration. The narrator, Ben, searches for a sign from his daughter, who’s died and left him broken-hearted. Ben is a Hollywood screenwriter and he wants his daughter to have that Hollywood ending she so much deserves, even though he knows that’s impossible.

So he starts to apply a series of principles to motivate himself into believing that everything can still work out. These fascinating principles are derived from self-help gurus, philosophers, and religion.

First he applies them to his writing, then to his career, and finally to everything in his life. He discovers which principles work and which don’t and that journey becomes a powerful response to life’s many setbacks. It also becomes a creative guide on how to be a writer.

Available at:

About the Author:

Irving Belateche is an author, screenwriter, and speaker. He’s written screenplays for Paramount, Columbia, Warner Brothers and other studios. He also lectures on writing and on unconventional wisdom. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and son. Please contact him through Facebook.

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Published on May 25, 2012 04:10

Book Feature and Giveaway: “Celtic Run” by Sean Vogel

Please welcome to Lizzyland author Sean Vogel. He’s sharing his latest novel, Celtic Run. He’s also having a giveaway and the prizes available are 1 Amazon Kindle Fire, 5 Codes from PICPOCKET BOOKS to download the iBook, and 6 Signed copies of the book. Details on how to enter are below.

Jake, a 14-year-old gadget whiz, didn’t plan on a summer full of treasure, thieves, and danger. He just got lucky.

While in Ireland on a class trip, Jake stumbles upon the first clue to a treasure missing from the Spanish Armada. Jake sees the riches as his chance to buy back the family sailboat and restore a piece of the life he enjoyed before his father was critically injured in an accident. Desperate to find the treasure, Jake teams up with Zach, his nemesis and class bully, and two girls in a clue-hunting chase across the Dingle Peninsula.

Dodging would-be thieves, exchanging wisecracks with Zach, and concocting ingenious devices to get them out of scrapes, Jake leads the team as they connect piece after piece to the more than 400-year-old mystery.

Available at:

iBooks (with no audio/fixed layout with audio coming soon)

Tales2Go members can download the audio from www.tales2go.com

How to Enter Giveaway:

“Like” Seanvogelauthor on facebook

“Like” MBpublishing on facebook

Follow @MBpublishing on twitter

Sign up for MB Publishing’s newsletter at:http://www.mbpublishing.com/newslette...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Author Bio

Growing up in a small town in Michigan during the 1980s, Sean was provided with an excellent garden for cultivating his writing career. With only a few simplistic video games and three television channels, he became an accomplished daydreamer and a creative outside adventurer.

A son of a garbage truck driver, Sean often received “gently used” items from his father’s route. With a bit of imagination and a little tinkering, these items were reborn as tools for battles against backyard bandits. These childhood experiences would later serve as the foundation and inspiration for Jake McGreevy’s gadgetry expertise.

Seeking his own adventures, Sean joined the Army via an ROTC scholarship at Colorado State University. Living in Germany for several years gave him the opportunity to travel extensively in Europe. During his time in the Army, he served in the Field Artillery and Signal Corp, rising to the rank of Captain and receiving the Bronze Star Medal for his service in Iraq.

Sean started drafting novels to fill downtime during long deployments in the military; a pen is easier to carry than a guitar. But he soon fell in love with the frustrating yet satisfying science called writing and has been hard at work ever since.

When he’s not helping Jake get out of tangles, Sean is a department manager for a large aerospace company. He lives in Denver with his wife, daughter, and their two dachshunds.

Author: www.seanvogel.com
Publisher: www.mbpublishing.com

www.facebook.com/seanvogelauthor

www.facebook.com/mbpublishing

twitter: @mbpublishing

Book Trailer
http://www.mbpublishing.com/celtic-run-book-trailer.html

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Published on May 22, 2012 04:00

Book Feature: “Times of Trouble” by Cliff Ball

Please welcome to Lizzyland author Cliff Ball. He’s sharing his end times novel, “Times of Trouble”.

Told in first person point of view, Brian Atwood, our main character, works for the FBI in Omaha. His work involves searching for possible terrorist plots, and then he is recruited to become personal bodyguard for the President of the United States after stopping a potential terror plot to a U.S. Air Base. His faith as a Christian is tested daily working for a President with no morals, along with having a wife who is dying of cancer, and a son who was taken away by the Health Administration when it’s found out the boy has Down’s Syndrome. We follow the family to the End Times as the U.S. begins to fall apart around them.

Available at:

About the Author:

Cliff lives in Texas, is a Christian, has a BA in English, and is pursuing a Technical Writing Certificate. Currently has published six novels and two short stories.

Author site,

Blog,

Twitter

Facebook Author page

Google+

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Published on May 21, 2012 04:00

Upcoming book launches and events!

I haven’t blogged in a looooong time! I thought now was a good time, especially with the upcoming events.

Book updates

Rebel Heart will be released this week! I hope it doesn’t take FOUR WEEKS to make it to iTunes like Rhyn’s Redemption did! Ack!

I’m also working on The Grey God and hope to release it either between my two upcoming events OR after I get back from New York (mid-June.) It takes me about three days to publish a book once it’s edited, which includes time for formatting and uploading it to all the different places we upload. I don’t know if I’ll have that time between the Phoenix Comicon and Book Expo America. Soooo … Darian might have to wait to see the world until sometime after June 9!

The first book in my new young adult paranormal trilogy, Dark Summer, will also be released towards the end of June, which should put me back on schedule. Then, Kiera’s Sun in July!

Events!

I leave Wed for the Phoenix Comic Convention, where I’ll be exhibiting (booth 341) Thurs- Sun. I’m super-excited, especially because I want to meet Patrick Stewart. Wowza. That man is just wonderful! Haha! We’ll see if I can get his autograph! I’ll be blogging and tweeting live from Comicon, so I’ll let you all know how it goes! This feels like it’ll be a blast, and I’m going to meet some other indie authors who are also exhibiting.

After Comicon, I come home for a two days then fly to Ohio to see my family and drive with my sister to New York for Book Expo America. I’ll be exhibiting at BEA June 5-7 (Tues – Thurs) and will be blogging and tweeting live from there.

One of my goals at BEA is to see if I can make the connections I need to sell foreign rights to the Rhyn and War of Gods series, so my books make it to place like India, China and a lot of other places where I have readers but have trouble getting books to them. So, we’ll see. Fingers crossed! And, I’m going to approach a few people about the Katie’s Hellion script, too!

Otherwise … I’m keeping busy with world domination plans and writing! My animals are doing great, and my hubby is working on launching his own online budget SEO company, so he can help other authors and business owners.

Life in Lizzyland is busy but fruitful and most importantly – FUN! I’ll let you guys know when I’m ready to reveal my latest crazy scheme! :-)

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Published on May 19, 2012 11:21

Book Feature: “The Forensic Geology Series” by Toni Dwiggins

Please welcome to Lizzyland author Toni Dwiggins. She’s sharing her latest mystery/thriller series, “The Forensic Geology Series”.

The Forensic Geology Series:

BADWATER:

Forensic geologists Cassie Oldfield and Walter Shaws embark on a perilous hunt–tracking a terrorist who has stolen radioactive material that is hotter than the desert in August. He threatens to release it in America’s most fragile national park, Death Valley.

But first he must stop the geologists who are closing in.

As the hunt turns dangerous, Cassie and Walter will need grit along with their field skills to survive this case. For they are up against more than pure human malice. The unstable atom–in the hands of an unstable man–is governed by Murphy’s Law. Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.

And it does.

Available at Amazon US and UK.

VOLCANO WATCH:

NO WAY OUT–so says the note in the pocket of the murdered mayor.

The volcano beneath her town is seething, and the fate of Mammoth Lakes now rests in the hands of emergency planner Adrian Krom.

But Krom has his own agenda.

Investigating the case, forensic geologist Cassie Oldfield tracks mineral clues to discover how the mayor died–and what she found. As the volcano moves toward red alert, Cassie races to prevent ‘no way out’ from becoming a prophecy.

Available at Amazon

About the author:

I come from a family of writers: Dad was a newspaperman and wrote books about aviation, Aunt/Uncle wrote Westerns and Detective stories, Mom wrote a couple of B-movie scripts. Must be osmosis.

I’ve done magazine work, both fiction and nonfiction. I’m author of a US history text and contributed to texts in the sciences, including earth science. I’ve done tech-writing for the Silicon Valley computer industry. My techie experience hatched an idea that became my first novel, about an attempt to sabotage the nation’s telephone system (INTERRUPT, published by TOR Books).

I went in a different direction with the Forensic Geology Series, taking mystery into outdoor adventure territory.

FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Toni-Dwiggins/293769983970874

WEBSITE: tonidwiggins.com

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Published on May 18, 2012 04:00

Book Feature: “The Gastien Series” by Caddy Rowland

Please welcome to Lizzyland historical fiction author Caddy Rowland, sharing her latest release in “The Gastien Series”.

[image error]In this first book of the Gastien series, young Gastien Beauchamp begins his journey from the farm to Paris with two goals in life. The first is to become an artist with his own studio, following his own rules. That is an almost impossible dream for a peasant with no money or formal training. Paris spits out talented men into the gutters every day. “Good” gets you nowhere. “Great” maybe gets you a bowl of soup.

The second is to become the greatest lover in France. That should be easy. With his stunning looks and willingness to learn, the women of Paris are about to be awakened in a way they have only dreamt about in the nineteenth century!

Gastien also has focus, drive, and raw, natural talent. With the dream burning inside of him, he is determined to succeed at any cost. Poor Gastien. If he could only know in advance what brutal struggles await him, he might turn around and go back home.

Sometimes the “impossible” is possible. But the cost can be extremely high.

Available at:

“I am Gastien Beauchamp, artist and lover. Any Frenchman would tell you that a peasant [image error]could never own property in nineteenth century France. Yet here I am, in my very own studio. The personal cost was horrendous. I barely survived the choices I made, and my sanity was pushed to its limits.

Still, I finally now have security, peace, and freedom. For the rest of my life I can spend time “making love to the color”, making love to beautiful women, and enjoying the wild nightlife of bohemian Montmartre. What more could a man need or want?

Then, one night, I see her. One look at Sophie, and my heart wants to betray me! I try to tell myself that I know better. Who needs love, anyway? I am already married-to my art!

No woman would ever understand and accept my lifestyle; nor am I about to give that lifestyle up. Not when I paid so dearly for it! Besides, I am too badly damaged to ever open up my heart…and if Sophie found out about my past she would not want to even know my name. I can’t take that chance. I have had enough pain to last me a lifetime.”

Available at:

[image error]From the bustling streets of New York City to the smoky speakeasies of Roaring Twenties Chicago, Tristan finds huge financial success. Along with respect, tradition, and family, he promises himself that this will be enough. Having achieved peace by forgiving his father his debauchery, he’s certain that there is nothing that could induce him to follow in his father’s lascivious footsteps.

Like father, like son will never apply to Tristan.

Then the urgent whisper that has been telling him there should be more than what he is experiencing with his wife becomes a full blown roar. With a very proper wife that refuses to loosen up, Tristan learns that the passion of the father is very much the passion of the son. To deny it may be impossible, but to embrace it could cost him everything. Book 3 of The Gastien Series.

Available at:

Coming Soon to Paperback

About the author:

Caddy Rowland grew up in the Midwest with a stack of books that almost reached the ceiling before she was five. Books, along with her vivid imagination, have always been her closest friends.

She lives in Minnesota with her husband, who was her high school sweetheart. They are owned by two parrots. Yes, they can talk, and yes, they can bite! Melanie, the African Grey has such an extensive vocabulary that Caddy sometimes thinks Melly is preparing to become an author.

After over 20 twenty years in advertising sales, Caddy decided to pursue her childhood dream of becoming an author in 2011. There are four books planned for the Gastien series, and many other books in her head. Now, if only she can learn to type 2000 words a minute…

Her goal as an author is to make readers laugh, cry, think, and become intimately connected with her main characters. To her, a good main character stays in the mind long after the story has been read. They should become as real in the mind as the person next door.

My blog: http://caddyrowlandblog.blogspot.com Writer of Fiction, Painter of Life & Energy

Gastien Beauchamp Fanpage:http://www.facebook.com/Gastien.Beauchamp(hit the “like” button)

Twitter: @caddyorpims

Author Email: caddyauthor@yahoo.com (drop me a line about my books or ask to be put on email list for future releases. I do NOT spam. I promise.)

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Published on May 16, 2012 04:00

New member of Lizzy’s team: Jenn!

I have a new member of the Lizzyland team who will be helping me with scheduling, correspondence, press releases, etc., and the affiliate program. Please welcome Jenn P! Jenn also organized my last blog tour, which was an incredible success! She’s been a longtime Lizzyland fan and now, a member of the team!

For those who’ve emailed the past couple of months, you’ve probably noticed my response time has slowed down quite a bit. I’ve been struggling to keep up with correspondence, planning for upcoming appearances, managing the day-to-day and writing as well. So, Jenn is gonna help keep me on target and yell at me when I fall off the boat! She’ll also be handling my affiliate program, which I’m planning to do the official launch for at the end of the month. [Commissions start at $1 per book sold, so if you're interested, send us an email! LizzyFord2010(at)gmail(dot)com.]

Welcome, Jenn!