Lizzy Ford's Blog, page 57

Winner of the Shea MacLeod Collection

I pulled a winner of the Shea MacLeod paranormal romance-urban fantasy collection as part of the Best eBooks of 2011 series:

Viki S, who tweeted and commented on the post!

Congrats, Viki!  You should've received an email from me!

Winners of the Tara West and Alan Nayes Collections

I'm happy to announce two more winners from the Best eBooks of 2011 series!

Winner of the Tara West Collection: Martha Schlegel (who commented on the post and FB)

Winner of the Alan Nayes Collection: Jordyn Lake (who 'liked' the post!)

Congrats, winners!  I'll draw the winning name from the Shea MacLeod giveaway on Monday, and I have two more collections to post next week!  Stay tuned!

Best eBooks of 2011: Shea MacLeod Collection

Time for the sixth installment of our Best eBooks of 2011!  Today, I'm featuring the Shea MacLeod collection.  Shea is a fantastic new paranormal romance and post-apocalyptic paranormal romance author.  Her two series, Dragon Wars and Sunwalker Saga, are both well-written and fresh.  My personal fave: "Dragon Warrior."  The winner of today's giveaway will win all four of Shea's books!  Drop by her blog and say hello!  I'll draw winners Monday for this one!

To enter the giveaway: comment on this post OR share with your social media networks via the buttons at the bottom of this post OR RT my tweet OR like, share, or comment on Facebook OR +1, share, or comment on Google+.

Sunwalker Saga

Danger is always on the menu for Morgan Bailey, a sexy and street-smart bounty hunter, who prowls the dark underworld of Portland, Oregon hunting creatures of the night. Morgan's never met a vampire she couldn't dust or a demon she couldn't kill until she's hired to destroy a new kind of mystical threat: the Sunwalker.

A powerful immortal once believed myth, the Sunwalker carries with him an ancient secret which, if left unchecked, will destroy Morgan's world. Pursued by a passionate Templar Knight and the target of the local vampire clans, an ancient power is awakened within her, unlike anything she's ever known. Morgan must uncover the truth behind her mission and about herself, before the Darkness lurking inside swallows her whole.

Purchase from: Amazon, BN, or iTunes.

Vampire hunter Morgan Bailey's life is about to take a turn for the weird. As if Sunwalkers, a Templar Knight, and an ancient Atlantean artefact weren't enough.

When a MI8 analyst is brutally murdered, Morgan is called to London to investigate. She stumbles across a conspiracy involving an extinct supernatural race. Dragons. But the dragons may not be as extinct as everyone thought.

The Darkness grows inside her. A new power rages out of control. She is stalked through the streets of London by the vampire who murdered her.

Morgan must hunt her own killer. She must uncover the truth. Or humanity will be plunged into a war it can never hope to win.

Purchase from: Amazon, BN, or iTunes.

Morgan Bailey is looking forward to a nice, quiet birthday.  Fate has other plans.

A psychotic sidhe is on the loose: A fairy so powerful, not even a Hunter can stop him. But with the help of the Fairy Queen, Morgan is determined to try. She soon finds herself crashing a steampunk party, hunting down rednecks, having tea with a genie king, and battling Mongolian Death Worms.

Unfortunately there is more to the sidhe's plans than meets the eye and his endgame spells disaster not just for his own people, but for human kind as well.

Purchase from: Amazon, or Smashwords.

Dragon Wars

A man without a past. A woman without a future. A world destroyed by monsters. All that's left is hope.

In Rain Mauri's post-apocalyptic world there are no shades of gray to survival. Until she meets a Dragon Warrior and discovers nothing is as simple as it seems. Together, Rain and the Dragon Warrior must uncover the truth behind the nightmare their world has become. Their quest will put them in the crosshairs of a ruthless enemy, but with her determination and his skill, they might just save their race from destruction. If they can save each other first.

Purchase from: Amazon, BN, or iTunes.

Best eBooks of 2011: Alan Nayes Collection

Welcome to day five of the Best eBooks of 2011!  Today, I'm featuring Alan Nayes, whose fiction runs from romance to thriller.  It's really hard to describe the genre Alan writes in, except to say it's all dramatic fiction.  And it's some of the best writing you can find. He's truly talented, and I believe 100% this man can write anything! I'll be giving away all four of Alan's books to one lucky winner.  Winners will be drawn on Saturday.  Drop by Alan's website, blog or Facebook page and say hello!

To enter the giveaway: comment on this post OR share with your social media networks via the buttons after this post OR RT my tweet OR like, comment, or share on FB OR +1, comment or share on G+.

When Kelly English flies back to Oshkosh,Wisconsin, to close out her father's estate, the last thing on her mind is falling in love. Again. Kelly is twenty-eight and engaged to an older man who is quite wealthy. She's happy, and only desires to make the trip back brief, sell her deceased father's place, and return to her stable life in Los Angeles. However, while taking care of business in Oshkosh, Kelly meets a fishing guide, launching her on an emotional journey she never could have predicted or foreseen. BARBARY POINT is Kelly's story of what happened that one magical week in May on the shores of Lake Winnebago when the ducklings hatch and the walleye run.

Purchase from: Amazon, BN, or iTunes.

Seven years after a near-fatal mauling by a grizzly bear, in which his only son was killed, Jason Bristol, a one time prize-fighter and expert animal tracker, is back in the woods tracking again–when he's not nursing the nearest fifth of whiskey.

Then Jason's best friend and mentor is discovered half-buried beneath a mat of pine needles.  The prospector's mangled corpse has been mauled virtually beyond recognition.  A rancher loses a prize thoroughbred and suddenly the nightmare responsible for Jason's downward spiral is rekindled as Jason is thrust back into the wilderness on the trail of a predator that defies belief.

The time clock has begun for Norah Phelps, too, daughter of multimillionaire real estate developer Richard Phelps whose recent purchase of the 95,000 acre former Clarksdale Animal Preserve has pitted environmentalist and wildlife biologist daughter against capitalist father.  Norah, responsible for relocating the local wolf population, remains unconvinced a pack of marauding wolves are accountable for the attacks and enlists Jason's help in her quest for the real killer before the spate of killings can jeopardize not only her future but also the future of her father's prize development project.

Against the majestic pristine backdrop of Idaho's Bitterroot Wilderness Area, the story unfolds.  Jason, with Norah's assistance, soon discovers the ghosts of his past are nothing compared to the battle he's undertaken.

Smilodon.  A saber-toothed cat.  He's angry, he's frightened, he's hungry, and he's 12,000 years from home!

Purchase from: Amazon, BN, or iTunes.

Brilliant pre-med student Amoreena Daniels needs money. Desperately. Her mother is dying of cancer and her medical insurance has run out. When a seemingly perfect women's clinic offers Amoreena a generous payment for service as a surrogate mother, Amoreena thinks her prayers have been answered. But then–much too early–her baby begins to move. The strange dreams, another surrogate's mysterious death and a drug-addicted former medical intern confirm Amoreena's worst suspicions: there is something terribly wrong with the pregnancy. Amoreena embarks on a dangerous journey to uncover the truth behind the endless battery of genetic tests, sonograms, and frightened patients, only to discover that she has unwittingly become a pawn in a high-stakes game of biomedical experimentation.

Purchase from: Amazon, BN, or iTunes.

The first victim, brutally assaulted, literally dies of fright in the emergency room, and Dr. Julie Charmaine must find out why. A psychiatrist, an advocate for battered women, and a noted sleep researcher, Dr. Charmaine has only two clues to the beautiful young woman's death: she reeks of the city's sewers and her last word was the Spanish slang for monkey.

Vicki Zampisi, tormented by twin memories of terror and lost love, begins an odyssey of vengeance. But when she is attacked in the run-down hotel where she was once betrayed, she is put under the care of Dr. Julie Charmaine, and the terrified woman's dreams reveal there is more to this cold-blooded serial killer the L.A. press have dubbed the "Sewer Stalker" than Vicki is letting on.

Purchase from: Amazon, BN, or iTunes.

2011 Year in Review from a Technical Perspective

I know Lizzy is planning on doing a 2011 year-in-review from her perspective, so I thought I would do a quick look back at 2011 from my perspective as the "tech guy" for the site. I've been seriously slacking lately on my technical articles, but I promise I have a few new ones coming out soon. Between spending holiday time with Lizzy, working 50+ hours a week, trying to teach myself electronics (seriously) and reading (I'm currently about halfway through the 4th book in the "Game of Thrones" series by George R. Martin) I've just let a few things go lately, including my SEO/social media experiments.

We started at the beginning of 2011 with a brand new web address with no site and no visitors. While Lizzy was busy cranking out her first book, I built the site using WordPress, and we were off and running. Our Alexa rank in January was over 13 million, which means we had few-to-no real visitors (aside from us.)

My first goal was to make sure that if anybody was looking for Lizzy, that they would find her. That job was simple enough. Placing her profile and books at several locations across the internet vaulted our page to the top of any "Lizzy Ford" queries. With that established, I decided to try to go after people who were looking not specifically for a particular author, but rather certain genres of books. This proved quite a bit more difficult as there are a lot more websites trying to get ranked for "romance ebooks" then there are "Lizzy Ford".

In order to get our site ranked for more competitive terms I put in A LOT of hours doing link building work. I've gotten a lot better at it now and learned some great shortcuts, but it really wasn't fun at the beginning. The worst part by far trying to negotiate reciprocal link exchanges. I was amazed by both the lack of responses and rejection I got when I tried that path, especially from people who probably would've benefitted more by being linked to our site than we would theirs. Reciprocal links were – and are – an important part of link building, but it isn't fun.

Battling for web traffic really is a war of attrition. Similar to selling books, people seem to randomly explode for no apparent reason, but usually it's a slow and steady climb up the charts. The first half of the year, the biggest spike in traffic our site was 2,333 visits during the week of February 13th through the 19th when Lizzy launched "Damian's Assassin". At the time that spike seemed otherworldly. However, in the second half of the year, 2,333 visits for the week would be the lowest we've seen in the past six months.

Our Alexa ranking has gone from around 13 million at the beginning of the year to 164,777 now. That means our site is the 164,777th most visited site on the internet. That may not seem super impressive, but it's a good ranking and I'm proud of it. I remember looking at sites with rankings in the 200,000s at the beginning of the year and thinking we would never get that high.  As I write this, we're at the bottom of the first page on Google for the term "romance ebooks". I would be lying if I said i didn't do a little dance when we passed up Barnes and Nobel for the #10 spot

One thing I wish I would have focused on sooner was social media. I encouraged Lizzy to get on Facebook and Twitter from the very beginning and to be active and she did a great job with it. It wasn't until the end of the year that I started to get a good grasp on a solid methodology to use for Facebook and Twitter. The Twitter methodology I talked about in an October article has boosted Lizzy's followers to over 2,000. The good part is that they are all targeted for a phrase they mentioned or a person they followed, so it's not just 2,000 random people but 2,000 people who have an interested in romance ebooks. The bad part is that we didn't start using the methodology until October! We should be around the 5,000 follower mark a year from now.

On the Facebook side it's all about using Facebook ads, but we used a really good strategy to go from a few hundred fans to over 1,000 fans in about a week and for not much money. I talked about this experiment in a few different articles. Once again, these people were all laser targeted for a specific term. I'm not interested in thousands and thousands of followers; I'm interested in a solid core of followers who are interested in what Lizzy has to offer.

I didn't want to get into specifics in this article, because the 'how' methodology of the above has been covered in my SEO and social media articles. I just wanted to outline the gains we've made this year. If you had a good year with your blog or website I would love to hear about your success and what you did to achieve it.

Best eBooks of 2011: Tara West Collection

Today I'm featuring young adult paranormal author, Tara West, who wrote the Whispers series.  I've featured all three of the books in the series today.  Tara's books depict the everyday challenges of typical teenage girls, all of whom have the added challenges of possessing a supernatural gift.  Could you imagine trying to make it through school with a magical talent?!  I can't!  One winner will win all three!  Winners for this week's giveaways will be drawn on Saturday! Also, Tara designs book covers.  If you get a chance, drop by her website and check out her collection – it's fantastic!

To enter the giveaway: comment on this post OR share with your social networks via the buttons following this post OR RT my tweet OR like, comment, or share on Facebook OR like, comment, or share on Google+.

After shedding 30 pounds of baby fat, Sophie Sinora has grown into a pretty, but insecure, teen in bloom. To make her life more complicated, Sophie can sometimes read minds.

Sophie's BFFs, AJ and Krysta, are also 'gifted' with paranormal abilities. Keeping their gifts secret proves difficult, as their powers are strengthening, making them feel more and more like freaks.

When Sophie falls for Jacob, she hopes he'll ask her out to the Freshman Formal. But when she's forced to cheat and lie for him, she wonders how far she'll have to go to make him like her. Add to her growing list of problems – her teacher's suicidal thoughts, a locker bully who wants to kick her butt, the hot school flirt who won't stop teasing her, her pregnant sister who boots Sophie out of her room, and the growing tension between Sophie and her best friends.

Sophie's got issues. Hopefully, she can fix them in time to save her teacher's life and her social life.

Purchase from: Amazon, BN, or iTunes.

Raised under the shadow of her popular and spoiled brother, AJ Dawson struggles to get any kind of compliment from her mother. She can't escape her troubled home-life at school, when she is forced to deal with a lot of the same issues. Her immature coach is determined to turn the team against her, her teammates are bent on losing every game, and the rest of the school population cowers in her presence.

AJ's mounting frustration could turn her into a ticking time bomb, and she knows the first step to solving her problems is to gain acceptance from her mother. Easier said than done. Her relationship with her mother goes from bad to worse when AJ's new green-haired boyfriend knocks on the door.

She knows she'll have to clean up her guy if she wants to earn Mom's respect. But AJ's secret ability to foretell the future is driving her and her mom further apart, and if she doesn't tell her mom about her horrible vision soon, her brother will die.

Purchase from: Amazon, BN, iTunes.

Everything about Krysta Richards is wrong, from her short height to her unmanageable hair. Her ability to talk to spirits doesn't help things, either. Her physical flaws don't seem to matter to Bryon, her lab partner. Just as the chemistry between them is about to ignite, a homicide detective asks her to summon a murder victim, her drunk father suddenly takes an interest in her life and her dead friends enlist her in a crusade to save their decrepit cemetery.

She dreams of gracing the cover of Cosmo, but if she can't get her life back to normal, she'll be labeled the poster child for Weirdo.

Purchase from: Amazon, BN, or iTunes.

About Tara

A former Texas high school teacher, Tara enjoyed coaching her writing team and even the hectic deadlines that came with running the school publications. After taking a break to raise her baby girl, Tara now works from home as a cover artist. In her spare time, Tara loves to read, exercise and spend time with her family and friends. She contributes the cover art for her own novels and has designed covers for over 500 other books. She'd love for you to visit her at her website where you can check out her Whispers series and sample her artwork.

Guest Post by Cheryl Shireman, Indie Chicks Anthology founder

Guest post by Cheryl Shireman, Indie Chicks Anthology founder and author of "Life Is But a Dream."

"I Burned My Bra for This? One Woman's Fantasy"

by Cheryl Shireman

I'm a Baby Boomer. Which means that I remember bell-bottoms, Happy Days, and having only three channels on the television. I played Donny Osmond albums on a record player. My parents watched Gunsmoke, and on Sunday nights we all watched The Wonderful World of Disney. In the living room. Together. On the only television we owned. Imagine that! I remember the first time I saw Bonanza in color. I remember the first time I heard about remote controls for televisions. The whole idea seemed ridiculous. With three channels, really, how often would it be needed? I remember the Watergate hearings playing on the television when I came home from school.

I also remember watching feminists (does anyone use that word anymore?) burn their bras and march for equal rights. I grew up believing that a woman deserves equal pay for equal work and that a woman is not defined by the man she marries or by the children she gives birth to. In fact, we were told that both men and children were optional. The idea seemed revolutionary at the time. It still does. Women were mad as hell and they weren't taking it anymore. We called it Women's Liberation, and though it was never said, it was certainly implied (and believed in most circles) that a woman who did not work was a bit inferior to a career woman. That was when such women were called housewives and not "stay at home" moms. Women were divided into two groups – those who worked and those who didn't. Back then, no one thought that staying home and taking care of a family and home was work. The women of my generation wanted more, demanded more, and believed we were entitled to just that – more. We sometimes looked at our own mothers, most of whom did not have real jobs, as women who simply did not understand that there was more to life than being a mother. If truth be told, we thought they were a bit simple-minded and we secretly vowed to do more with our lives.

And yet…as this Baby Boomer looks at her life, I realize nothing I have ever done, or will ever do, is as important as being a mother. Not career, volunteer work, graduate school, or any creative pursuit. Nothing else even comes close to being a mother. Period.

One of my children lives half an hour away, another is one state away, and the third is on the other side of the world in Denmark. Yesterday, my husband and I spent the entire day with our two-year-old granddaughter. She then spent the night. As I write this, I hear her gentle breathing in the baby monitor positioned atop the table close to where I sit.

To say that my children, and now my granddaughter, have filled my life with love and joy is an understatement. As children, they expanded my heart in ways I could never have imagined. For the first time in my life, I not only understood, but received unconditional love. As adults, they are three people that I know I can always count on. They will always be there for me. Just as I will always be there for them. Can you say the same about your career?

There used to be a television show called Fantasy Island. People visited the island and lived out their fantasies – no matter how wild (okay, not that wild – this was primetime family tv in the seventies). Not too long ago, my husband and I had a discussion about that old tv show and asked each other – What would your fantasy be? Mine was easy. If I could have a Fantasy Island day, I would relive one day with my children. My son would be 10, which would make my daughters 4 and 2. We would spend the day doing whatever they wanted. Going to the park, going to the movies, playing games, baking cookies, or just sitting on the floor playing with Legos and Barbies. I would hug them a lot. And kiss the tops of their heads. And take tons of pictures. I wouldn't cook. I wouldn't clean. And I wouldn't worry about my career.

I would watch my son show his younger sisters how to do things, like he always did in his older brother sort of way. I would watch my 2 year-old daughter follow her older 4 year-old sister around the room, shadowing her every move. Just as she did, even through their college years when they shared an apartment near Indiana University. I would watch the older sister taking care of her younger sister, as if she were her baby. Which is what she called her when she was born – my baby.

Bedtime would be later than usual on that fantasy night. I would tuck them into their beds, fresh from baths and smelling of shampoo. The girls smelling like baby lotion. My son would hug me goodnight with his long skinny arms and tell me he loves me. And I would feel the truth in that. I would tuck in my girls and tell them it is time to go to sleep. I would take extra care in covering the older girl's feet, because she always kicked her blankets off during the night. I would kiss the baby and hold her a little longer, because I would know that, as I type this she is in Denmark which makes visiting tough.

And, as I walk down the hall and turn out the lights, I would call out to all of them, as I always did… "Goodnight. Love you. Sweet dreams. See you in the morning."

And that would be my fantasy day. Oddly enough, it has nothing to do with my career as a writer. Even though being a writer has always been my dream. My first novel, Life is But a Dream: On the Lake, was published earlier this year. The main character, Grace Adams, is a woman facing an empty nest and the possible demise of her marriage. Grace withdraws to a secluded lake cabin to redefine her life and try to find a reason to continue living. While at the lake, Grace not only finds renewed purpose and hope, but when things take a turn for the worse at the lake, she finds a strength she never knew she possessed. The novel is thought-provoking, sometimes frightening, and often funny (just like life). It is also, very definitely, fiction.

I'm not Grace. Even though my "nest" is empty, I am enjoying this time and this new focus on my career. I am not suicidal or lacking in purpose. My husband and I both work from home (he designs websites), we live on a lake, and our schedule is our own. It is truly a wonderful time in our lives. Sometimes I have popcorn for dinner. Enough said.

But, would my current life be as wonderful if I had not pursued career and graduate school and developed the skills I am using now? Probably not. I managed to combine work and school and motherhood. I believed I could have it all, and do it all, but to be honest – the kids always came first. And being a mother is the strongest and best part of my identity. It is the thing I am most proud of. My greatest achievement. And, once in a while, I miss those days when toys where scattered across the floor, the washer was always running, and we bought eight gallons of milk a week.

If you have children at home, cherish those simple every-day moments with them. They really will be gone in the blink of an eye – sooner than you can possibly imagine. Put this book down. Now. Go sit on the floor and play a game. Pop some popcorn, put on one of their favorite movies, and cuddle up on the couch. Live that "fantasy" right now. You will never be able to recapture these moments. Enjoy them now. There is no greater gift than the love of your children. Spend the rest of your day letting it pour over you. And pour your love right back over them. You can come back to this book tonight, after they are asleep.

As I type this, I can hear my granddaughter waking up. I am shutting my computer off. Right now, I am going to go upstairs and scoop her up from her crib. She will probably wrap her little arms around my neck and ask, "Play blocks, Bomb Bomb?"

And we will play blocks.

This is one story from Indie Chicks: 25 Women 25 Personal Stories available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. To read all of the stories, buy your copy today. All proceeds go towards breast cancer research.

Also included are sneak peeks into 25 novels! My novel, Life Is But a Dream: On The Lake, is one of the novel excerpts featured. It is available at most online retailers in trade paperback as well as e-book formats.

About Cheryl

Cheryl Shireman lives in Midwest on a beautiful lake with her husband, Bruce. "One of the things I like best about writing is that I can do it from home in my pajamas." She started writing as a teen, probably inspired after reading one of her favorite books, My Friend Flicka. Through the years, amid marriage, the birth of three children (Rocky, Lee Anne, and Scarlett), divorce, and her second (and last!) marriage, the one thing that has remained constant is her love of writing.

She has written many "practice novels" through the years("the kind that get stuffed in a box and shoved under your bed or clutter your hard drive"). With her last child married, she is now ready to spread her own wings. Her first novel is entitled Life is But a Dream. She has just published a second novel, Broken Resolutions. Right now, she is hard at work (probably in her pajamas and staring out the window at the lake) on her third novel – a sequel to Life is But a Dream.

2011: The year of the phoenix

Since it's the last day of the year, I thought I'd sit down and take a look at 2011.  What an incredible rollercoaster of a year!  On the personal front, I had a job loss, foreclosure, car repossession, and relapse into depression.  Yeah, rough year on that front, but I still have my beautiful hubby and animals – which I learned were the most important parts of my life.  I lost a great deal of hope in myself and my goals BUT I found peace through writing, forging a new path, and reshaping my life.

When I look back, I see the bad, but I also see all that darkness had to occur in order for me to finally start down the path to the dream I've had since I was knee-high: to become a writer.  Rather than view 2011 as a year I'd rather forget, I view 2011 as the year that gave me the strength and foundation to follow my dreams.  2011 is my year of the phoenix – and rebirth.

In retrospect, all I can say is … HOLY SMOKES!  LOOK WHAT WE BUILT, FELLOW CITIZENS OF LIZZYLAND!  I started 1 Jan 2011 with the release of Damian's Oracle.  Here are a few stats:

 I wrote and released ten books and four short stories.
 Started three series: Rhyn, War of Gods/Damian, and The Foretold
 Sold around (paid sales) 30,000 books.
 I had about 300,000 additional free downloads of my books.
 My website went from 20 visitors A WEEK to over 500 A DAY, and we reached 500,000 page views in ten months.
 From April, when I created a Twitter account, until today, I gained 2100 followers
 From July, when I created my Lizzy Ford Books Facebook page, until today, I gained 1293 fans.
 I Appeared on close to 100 blogs/websites for guest blogs, interviews, or book features.

And these are just a few of the accomplishments, which just baffles me even more!  I'm proud of these accomplishments, more so because they occurred during a time of great personal struggle.

We built all this – hereby known as Lizzyland – in a year.  A YEAR!  And yes, I say 'we' because I never could've done any of this without the support of my husband, readers, fellow writers and fans.  You all made this possible with your support and encouragement, because I never would've found the courage to continue to write without you.

So, at the close of the year, I'd like to say THANK YOU, and get ready for an awesome 2012.  Tons of books, giveaways, and other events are coming, and I'm hammering out my Master Plan for 2012, the one that will enable us to take over the world. 

2012 will be an awesome year – I feel it!

Winners of the first 3 Best eBook of 2011 Collections!

As promised, here are the winners of the first three Best eBook of 2011 Collections!

Winner of the Talia Jager Collection: Michele, who RT'd on Twitter (handle: @llamannerdymama)

Winner of the Jack Wallen Collection: Lanae T, who commented on the post

Winner of the Julia Crane Collection: Jessica, who left a comment on the post

I'll reach out to each of the winners today!

Thanks to everyone participating!  I have another five collections coming up over the next week!

Holiday Hop's grand prize winner of the Kindle Fire announced!

The winner of the Kindle Fire was announced on the Holiday Hop blog earlier today.  The winner: Krysta Banco.

Congrats, and thanks everyone for participating!