Amanda L. Davis's Blog, page 14

Precisely Terminated Amazon Blitz

Ever heard of an Amazon Blitz?



It's where a group of people buy a specific product (usually a book or movie) on a specified day to help boost that item's ranking. Boosting a ranking helps the item get recognition by people who are perusing Amazon and helps the author get known (If it's a book).



I'm doing one of these blitzes for Precisely Terminated and would love it if anyone here could participate. :)



Details below:





Time: September 24, all day long



Activity: Buy Precisely Terminated at Amazon.com on that date.



Purpose: To help get Precisely Terminated known and to boost its ranking on Amazon. Also, you'll be getting a great book. ;)

...

Reward: If you email me on September 24 with proof of purchase from Amazon, I will send you an autographed adhesive label to put in the book as well as a bookmark. The label will have a graphic of Precisely Terminated on it. You'll also get a big hearty THANK YOU!



Proof of purchase can be the email Amazon sends you to confirm your order.





We really want to get Precisely Terminated's Amazon book ranking as high as we can, so please participate if you are able. :)



I will try to be on my author page, doing Q&A and posting ranking updates during this event. Please come and hang out and ask questions.



Link to Amazon:



http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0899...

Precisely Terminated Book Trailer

Check out this cool book trailer for Precisely Terminated!

Precisely Terminated is Off to the Printer!

Yes, the publisher is sending Precisely Terminated to the printer this evening! Hurrah!



Lots of last minute emails were flying back and forth between my editor and me this morning and yesterday evening, but it's all done now.



Here is the final cover.

With microchips implanted in their skulls at birth, the slaves of Cantral and Cillineese have labored under the tyrannical rule of the nobles and their computers for centuries. Monica, a noble who avoided the implanting and escaped a death sentence at the age of four, is now sixteen and is in hiding. She lives with the slaves inside the walls of the Cantral palace, pretending to be one of them while the slave council plots a way to use her chip-less state to destroy the all-powerful computers that strike down any hint of rebellion.

The fate of millions rides on Monica's shoulders. As the only chip-less person in the world, she must find a way to destroy the computers and free Cillineese from the nobles' iron fist before they strike with the ultimate punishment—death for everyone inside the city walls.

Cantral Chronicles Book 2

You know I've been working on the sequel to Precisely Terminated for awhile, right?

Well, I have.

Anyway, since it's the second book in the Cantral Chronicles trilogy I've just been calling it CC2, because I didn't have a title yet.

I didn't have a title for months, and since PT's release date is drawing in fast, I was starting to feel a little anxious about this lack of a title for its sequel. It's kind of good to be able to tell people what the sequel will be called!

So my dad and I brain stormed for a bit and came up with the title.

...

Noble Impostor

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What do you think?

I like the little oxymoron going on in there, and that the play on words. Royalty in this world are called Nobles, so someone impersonating them would be a Noble... but impostor... yeah. I'm sure you get it. ;)


I've just been writing away. I'm at 42,000 words now. I really need to step up the pace, however, seeing as we're leaving on tour soon and my deadline is October 1st

Upcoming Tour

In the months of September, October, and November, I will be away from my home almost the entire time.

Would you like to know why?

Well, I'll tell you anyway.


My dad, author Bryan Davis, and I will be going on a tour across the country (and a wee bit into Canada) on a promotional tour.

Some dates are scheduled, some are still tentative, but we will be driving a total of about 10,000 miles and visiting many states, from the east coast, northern border, mid west, west coast, and up into British Columbia.

When I have a specific schedule, I'll post it here.


Meanwhile, we're busy with preparations.

One of which includes coming up with a tour logo. My dad and I brain stormed yesterday and came up with an idea to use a road sign and other things.

So last night and this morning I worked on a logo that we will be using on the side of our van as a magnetic sign. We also might get t-shirts. We'll see.

What do you think?



The dragon is the representation for my dad, since he writes dragon books. The bunny is for me because ... well... because my family often calls me a bunny, and I call myself that, too, and bunnies are just adorable.

Internation Christian Retail Show

Every year around July or so an event is held called the International Retail Show (ICRS). It was held in Georgia this year.

This is a convention of booksellers and bookstore owners who gather to meet and discuss various things and sell and buy books for the year.


Authors are invited as well as incentive for bookstore owners to come and buy more books. Apparently, they like meeting authors.

I've been to almost every ICRS since 2004 (I've missed one or two here and there), despite the fact that I wasn't an author until this year. My dad started going long before 2004 as a media person and then as an author in '04.

This year it was my turn to go as an author. Though Precisely Terminated isn't out yet and won't be until October, my publisher decided to print about 50 advanced reader copies (ARCs) to have for the book buyers to pick up and take so they have an idea what the book is about and are more likely to buy it to stock in their stores once it is out.

So we had a book signing and all the books were picked up.

This was Monday, July 11, the first day of ICRS.

Here are some pictures from the signing.

Please note that the cover that you see on the ARCs is not the final cover. There will be a completely different cover on PT when it is released. When I have the final cover, I will post it here.







After the signing I was informed that Roma Downey, the actress who plays Monica in Touched By An Angel was at ICRS and signing posters for some DVD thing she was doing, so we met her, and I had my picture taken with her.


And no, Monica from Precisely Terminated did not get her name from this Monica.


On Tuesday the 12th I had two interviews with two magazines and a talk with my publicist, and after that we drove home to Tennessee.

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Number of Speaking Events Total: 2
Number of Signings: 1
Number of Interviews: 2

States Spoken In:

Florida
Kansas

States Signed in:

Georgia

New 'Bling'

In Precisely Terminated the main character, Monica, has to wear a small glass vial with a computer chip in it around her neck. This is so she can infiltrate various places and to keep the Nobles from knowing she doesn't have a chip of her own.

I decided I wanted this same type of necklace for myself. I ordered some small (1 inch tall) glass vials from etsy and cut up an old piece of RAM (a computer memory chip) and inserted the cut piece into the vial.

I'll soon find a string to thread through the hole and the necklace will be complete. I'm glad the computer chip doesn't run like the ones in the story!

Second Speaking Event

I had my second speaking even ever on the 1st. My dad was invited to a conference to speak, and the conference directors had me speak for ten minutes or so.

It was a short time, but I'm not very practiced at speeches yet, anyway so I did not mind at all.

Next event I have is a book signing at the annual Christian book seller's convention (ICRS - International Christian Retail Show). I also have some interviews there, and my dad has a signing as well.

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Number of Speaking Events Total: 2

States Spoken In:

Florida
Kansas

Precisely Terminated - A Synopsis

Here is a short synopsis of Precisely Terminated. I hope you will enjoy it and consider reading my novel.

With microchips implanted in their skulls at birth, the slaves of Cantral and Cillineese have labored under the tyrannical rule of the nobles and their computers for decades. Monica, a noble who avoided the implanting and escaped a death sentence at the age of four, is now sixteen and is in hiding. She lives with the slaves inside the walls of the Cantral palace, pretending to be one of them while the slave council plots a way to use her chip-less state to destroy the all-powerful computers that strike down any hint of rebellion.

The nobles hear of Monica's survival and try to exterminate her before she ruins their upper-class utopia. The rebels send her to find a missing paper bearing instructions on how to shut down the computers that control the chips in Cillineese, a major city-state. The nobles are alerted to the plan and prepare to seal Cillineese in a giant dome to gas the inhabitants, including Monica.

The fate of millions rides on Monica's shoulders. As the only chip-less person in the world, she must find the paper, destroy the computers, and free Cillineese from the nobles' iron fist before they strike with the ultimate punishment—death for everyone inside the city walls.

With microchips implanted in their skulls at birth, the slaves of Cantral and Cillineese have labored under the tyrannical rule of the nobles and their computers for decades. Monica, a noble who avoided the implanting and escaped a death sentence at the age of four, is now sixteen and is in hiding. She lives with the slaves inside the walls of the Cantral palace, pretending to be one of them while the slave council plots a way to use her chip-less state to destroy the all-powerful computers that strike down any hint of rebellion.

The nobles hear of Monica's survival and try to exterminate her before she ruins their upper-class utopia. The rebels send her to find a missing paper bearing instructions on how to shut down the computers that control the chips in Cillineese, a major city-state. The nobles are alerted to the plan and prepare to seal Cillineese in a giant dome to gas the inhabitants, including Monica.

The fate of millions rides on Monica's shoulders. As the only chip-less person in the world, she must find the paper, destroy the computers, and free Cillineese from the nobles' iron fist before they strike with the ultimate punishment—death for everyone inside the city walls.

The First Author Talk

This is my first post here on my author blog, and I'm not sure how to start it.

My name is Amanda L. Davis, and I am the author of the Cantral Chronicles, a dystopian trilogy which has its first book coming out in October. Precisely Terminated, the first in the series will be around 400 pages long and is exciting from start to finish. I will post the synopsis here in another post very soon.


On June 14th around 8PM I gave my first ever author talk. I've seen my dad (Author Bryan Davis) give them many times, but it's very different to stand up there and give my own. My dad and I spoke to the Daytona area Word Weaver's group. They were attentive and asked many questions. Lots of authors there who seemed interested in what we had to say.

I'm very thankful that they were willing to listen to all my 'ums' and 'ahs' and long uncomfortable pauses as I tried to think of what to say. Public speaking is not my forte, but it will soon become a second nature with practice as my dad and I begin our book tour together in September. Practice makes perfect, right?

I have pictures to post, too, but it will take awhile to post them here, and I'm pretty sure I don't have any readers here anyway. ;)