Mary Castillo's Blog: News from Mary Castillo, page 9
December 12, 2014
December 10, 2014
Today I’m the Featured Author on 12 Days of $.99 ebook Cheer!
“It was as if history was telling me, go for it; that my instincts were leading me straight and true. A similar thing happened with Anna, the young woman Vicente had died to protect.”
Thank you Books on the Vine for including me in 12 Days of $.99 EBook Cheer! Today I share how genealogy & archival research confirmed my instincts while writing LOST IN THE LIGHT: http://booksonthevine.com/featured-author-mary-castillo/
Filed under: Lost in the Light, The Dori O. Paranormal Mystery Series, Writing Wisdom
December 4, 2014
December 3, 2014
Quick Apple Cider with Good Earth Tea
Top of the morning! We Californians have been blessed with rain – yay!!! I was craving warm apple cider so I steeped Good Earth Tea Sweet & Spicy in a cup of hot apple juice. Mmm…just what I needed.
Filed under: Eat. Drink. Be Merry!
December 1, 2014
12 Days of Christmas 2014 Sale
12 Days of Christmas 2014 Sale.
Looking for a great holiday gift ideas for your friends and family? Trying to save money? How about 12 literary treats at 99 cents each. They include the first of my Abishag mysteries, plus books by a selection of other authors.
99 cents until December 12
Sinking Ships: An Abishag’s First Mystery: Nineteen-year-old Leslie Greene finds a way to solve her money woes. Having had four contract marriages, her friend Jen assures Leslie that nothing will go wrong. After signing with the Abishag agency (a firm that supplies temporary wives to comfort dying men), Leslie marries a comatose 83-year-old executive. Three weeks of training and armed with the Handbook for Abishag Wives, Leslie arrives at Thomas Crowder’s Palos Verdes home … and finds a murdered hospice aide. An old Portuguese shipwreck, an antique stack of hidden ledgers, her university housemates and a red-haired agency lawyer are all that stand between Leslie and a vengeful killer. Available on Amazon.
12 books, 12 authors, 12 days:
Dec. 1-12
Sinking Ships joins 11 friends for a group holiday sale. Books include mysteries, self-help, Regency romances, Belly-Dancing romances, paranormals, historicals, and Young Adult. Find more details and links at 12Daysof99CentEbookCheer. You may discover the perfect gift for someone on your Christmas list. I’ve been able to cross off more than a few on mine!
At the 12 Days of 99 Cent eBooks Cheer Headquarters, you can also vote for your favorite cover, enter a Raffle, and download a printable gift voucher for the best ever stocking stuffer.
HAPPY SHOPPING!
Filed under: eBook News
October 31, 2014
How To Thrive in the Month of NaNoWriMo
Tomorrow we start National Novel Writing Month and we have one goal and one goal only: to write 50,000 words before midnight of Nov. 30th. If you want my advice, here it is:
1. Write in the voice that God gave you. Forget about grammatically correct sentences that would please your seventh grade English teacher (it worked for Dalton Trumbo). Forget about writing the Great American Novel (there is no such thing). But how do you know what your own voice sounds like? Well if you had a really juicy bit of gossip, how would you write it in email?
2. Make an appointment to write in your calendar. I use a Google Calendar not only to remind myself when it’s time to write, but also to remind myself where I left off at the end of each session.
3. As I mentioned earlier, I like to goof off. So I also use a timer. I set it in 15 minute increments and when the writing is really going, I don’t even hear the zen bell chimes go off. When the writing is not flowing, it tells me how much longer I have to sit there until I get make a cup of tea!
3. It’s not about writing about what will be good enough to sell; it’s about getting under the skin of your characters and finding out what they’ll do next. Trust me, the cool thing about being an unpublished author is that no one has any expectations. You don’t have to worry about deadlines, what your agent or editor will think, orders and sales numbers. You have complete creative freedom. I’m grateful for my success and all the challenges that come with it. But I’m telling ya, enjoy the freedom while it lasts.
Then again, if you’re Stephen King you can do whatever the hell you want.
4. Do not swat away a new idea that comes out of left field. That’s a sign that your characters are taking over the book and that is when it starts to get juicy. To read my personal experience, go here.
5. TiVo or video tape your favorite shows. You’ll need something to get you through re-runs in December anyway.
6. Give yourself permission to write. Here, write this down: “I give myself permission to write. It is safe for me to write. It doesn’t have to be perfect. I really want to write a book and this is my time to write it.”
7. If you commute to work, use a recording app or carry a tape recorder to capture those bursts of inspiration. I wrote the revision of Hot Tamara in my reporter’s notebook while working for the LA Times. Do whatever you have to do!
8. Remember NaNoWriMo’s motto: quantity over quality! Just write. Don’t go back and agonize over every word. Tell your inner editor and critic to shut up and let the storyteller in you thrive.
Filed under: Writing Wisdom
October 27, 2014
October 24, 2014
This weekend Halloween Book Party at Books on Broadway
I would love to meet you guys at tomorrow’s Halloween party at Books on Broadway!They are throwing a Halloween party with Award-winning Novelist Candi Sary, Mystery Author Jeanette A. Fratto, Astrologist & Memoir Writer Deborah Smith Parker, author & writer, Rodica Iova – Children’s Author and Illustrator and me!
Saturday Oct 25 from noon to 2 p.m. – All are welcome!
Authors will be reading from and signing their books.
Bring an unwrapped new toy for our annual toy drive.
Enjoy treats & great books!
Illustration by By Stuart Miles – FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Filed under: Girl in the Mist, Lost in the Light, Mary's Books, News, The Dori O. Paranormal Mystery Series 
October 15, 2014
Gettin’ hot & heavy on (hee hee) #HumpDay
Taking a quick hump day break with a sexy excerpt from Girl in the Mist:
He then looked down at her lap. “Your jeans look too tight.”
The warm fuzzy bubble in which she had been floating popped. “What?”
“Mmm hmm.” Just when she was about to get good and offended his fingers traced the inseam up her thigh. His hand cupped over her, fingertips pressing ever so slightly to make her squirm for more.
“I don’t want you to be uncomfortable,” he said quietly, just before he sucked her ear lobe into his hot mouth.
Read the excerpt & get the ebookl
Filed under: News
