Sandy Appleyard's Blog, page 22

A “Must Read” Taste of ‘The Wife of a Lesser Man’

Do you like cop stories? A romance with a twist? Sex? Scandal? Here’s a “must read” excerpt from my latest novel ‘The Wife of a Lesser Man‘. Please read and enjoy!

“We’re just heading over to review the Reed scene. You want to join us?” Mark asked Andy. Andy’s face looked pale, and he was sipping a large coffee and appeared to be taking small, slow movements. Mark noticed the change in his pallor “Hey, you look like the way I looked a few weeks back, what’s going on?”

Andy swallowed and cleared...

Book Review: How to Blog a Book

Don’t let the name of the book limit your imagination as to what’s in between the pages. This is not only a step by step guide to teach you how to blog a book, but it also gives valuable information pertaining to website creation, building your platform through social media, creating a book proposal…the list goes on and on.

I purchased this book last year after having a few coaching sessions with the book’s author Nina Amir; shame on me for allowing the book to collect dust for this long. If I...

Writing Erotic Romances: Use a Pen Name or Not?

Lately I have so many book ideas I seriously don’t know what to do with them. I write them all down and the list is growing larger and larger seemingly by the week. One idea that I’ve literally just come up with is a story line for an erotic romance.

My usual genres are memoirs and romantic suspense, so erotic romance is new for me. The question is: do I use a pen name for this genre? The reason I ask is not so much for privacy, but because of my target audience. While my romantic suspense nov...

Guest Post: The Campfire is Back-Why Some Authors also Live in the Virtual World

It’s amazing just how busy an indie author’s life can be. You write your book, edit it, perhaps put it through one or more beta reading cycles, make or buy cover art, record trailers, write blurbs, blogs, websites, tweets — it never ends! So why would an author want to live a second life in a virtual world? Isn’t one life enough?

The answer is as simple as a campfire. We were born to communicate face-to-face. We look each other in the eye, evaluate dress, and watch body language. Our voices ad...

Guest Post: Spy in a Little Black Dress

I’m honoured and delighted to introduce my guest blogger, Maxine Schnall. Maxine and I met via Twitter (isn’t Twitter wonderful?) and I jumped at the opportunity to introduce her latest novel; not only because Maxine is such a long time prolific novelist, but also because I’m such a fan of Jacqueline Kennedy. So without further adieu, here’s what Maxine has to say about ‘Spy in a Little Black Dress’!

Spy in a Little Black Dress by Maxine Kenneth (writing team of Maxine Schnall and Ken Salikof)...

Skinny People Cry Too: Set an Example

I’ve never been one to exercise in public; I don’t go to the gym or to the local YMCA, not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I’m a work out at home kinda girl. Until I had my girls I always exercised solo. What I never realized was that something magical would happen when my kids watched me exercise.

Not only do they enjoy watching mommy get into funny yoga positions and jump up and down with Kathy Smith, but they also participate with me sometimes. It’s setting an example that will s...

How to Create a Book Trailer

You know you have to do it. You’ve hit the ‘upload’ button on your book publishing platform….now what? Next stop: promoting your work. Once you know where you’re book will appear first (hopefully Amazon.com) you can create your book trailer. It sounds incredibly technical and so far you’ve surprised yourself with what you’ve been able to accomplish on your own. Hey, you’re an indie author….there’s nothing you can’t do, right?

As much as you’re inclined to, please don’t hire someone to do your...

Skinny People Cry Too: Taking Care of Yourself First

Image courtesy of Inmagine.com

My friend recently injured herself trying to get back on the exercise band wagon after taking leave of it for several months. The problem was that she wasn’t taking care of herself first and when she did, she went on full strength too quickly. This led her to be literally on her back for over a week.

In the hustle and bustle of today, we tend to forget to look after ourselves first; especially all the mothers out there. I’ve learned over the years that it is vital...

Skinny People Cry Too

Image courtesy of Inmagine.com

You know it’s kind of ironic. When I was in high school it was usually the larger people who got the negative comments, the dirty looks from afar and the rumours spread about them. As an adult, I find it’s more the opposite.

Yeah, I’m skinny. And what I find is that a lot of people think I just wake up every morning looking like this. They think it’s easy for me, that being a size 7 just comes to me naturally. Guess what…..it doesn’t.

My daily exercise program has...

Book Review: Changeling-Order of Darkness Book 1

This is the first YA novel I’ve read since Flowers in the Attic and it was very enjoyable. My taste is usually for more adult oriented stories; however this one appealed to me. Philippa Gregory does that to her readers; she grabs their attention and hangs on, and I know now it doesn’t matter what the genre is.

Changeling is about a young, presumably orphaned boy, living in a monastery. He’s chosen to conduct an inquiry into a nunnery. The nunnery had been under severe scrutiny since a young La...