Uvi Poznansky's Blog, page 59
September 2, 2019
If you wake up too soon, violent incidents may occur
Mr. Armstrong slammed his fist on the table, until the shield and cross-swords seemed to clack. “Start with your partner. What’s her name, again?”“Ashley.”“She’s an industrial designer, is she not?”“The best! Our startup would not have been the success it was without Ash—”“Perhaps so. But at this point, do we need her?”“Excuse me, sir?”“Given the new direction here,” said Mr. Armstrong, in a slow, grumbling tone as if talking to a rebellious child, “she can contribute little from now on.”“I beg to differ,” said Michael, his muscles stiffening. “Given any direction, her role is vital. May I explain it to you, sir?”“Please do.”“For the customers of this company—say, military planners, or soldiers in training—virtual reality provides an uncanny sense of immersion. It tricks their brains into believing they are walking on that narrow beam high above an enemy city or riding an amphibious vehicle up the shore, anticipating an imminent attack. Ash did amazing work extending the immersive qualities and emotional impact of this experience, even before putting on the headset and long after taking it off.”“And how did she do that?”“By having participants step inside a physical environment, with props that were designed by her. It resembles a cross between an art installation and a minimalist stage production. Entering it prepares them mentally for the journey, before they take a plunge into virtual reality.”Michael waited for a response, but none came, so he went on. “This physical environment also provides a gentler exit, beyond just yanking off the headset. How can I explain it to you? Getting off virtual reality is like waking up from a dream. You don’t want to do it abruptly, especially if you’ve just been on a virtual battlefield, escaping an attack. If you wake up too soon, violent incidents may occur.”Mr. Armstrong glanced out the window into at the faraway sailboats. He must have liked what he saw, because it was then that he did something strange. He smiled, which seemed at odds with his usual grim face. To make matters worse, his smile continued to widen even as he relaxed his fist and opened his palm, across which was a scar.“Perhaps you’re right. Perhaps her work is valuable,” he said. “But even so, I’ve made my decision. I must fire her.”“Why?”“Because not being here at this meeting shows utter contempt.”Michael felt a rush of anger at this misguided decision, knowing it would not only cost Ash her livelihood but also rob both of them of the joy of creating new worlds, together. He considered responding with some excuse for her absence. No, excuse was the wrong word. She had every reason to be alone for as long as it might take for her to heal. She was still in pain, still seeking revenge on the man who had forced himself on her, if only she could figure out who it was. How could Michael share the little he knew about what had happened to her with someone who was practically a stranger to him, someone who didn’t know Ash and didn’t seem to care?
Excerpt from Virtually Lace
Virtually Lace (Volume II of Ash Suspense Thrillers with a Dash of Romance)Audible: US ★ UK ★ FR ★ DEAudiobook: Amazon US ★ Amazon UK ★ iTunesPaperback: Amazon
Haunted by discovering the body of a beautiful dancer, Michael sets out to create a virtual reality simulation of her murder. Can he bring the mystery to life? Can he solve its clues in time, before the killer turns on the woman he loves, Ash?
Excerpt from Virtually Lace
Virtually Lace (Volume II of Ash Suspense Thrillers with a Dash of Romance)Audible: US ★ UK ★ FR ★ DEAudiobook: Amazon US ★ Amazon UK ★ iTunesPaperback: Amazon
Haunted by discovering the body of a beautiful dancer, Michael sets out to create a virtual reality simulation of her murder. Can he bring the mystery to life? Can he solve its clues in time, before the killer turns on the woman he loves, Ash?
August 28, 2019
The memory of our first kiss
My time alone with Michael is about to come to an end. No doubt, Michael knows it, too. In a blink, he brushes his lips over mine, ever so lightly. It is then that something wondrous begins to happen. I don’t mean the memory of our first kiss, although that moment—framed with autumn leaves aflame all around us—is a great marvel, too.The wondrous thing is something else entirely. It’s this sensation—oh, how do I describe it? A tingle, an itch?—down there, in my left foot. To be more precise, it’s in my pinky toe. Oh wow! I can move it!“Goodbye,” says Michael in his softest voice, backing away.Oh no, don’t go! Not now, I beg him in my heart. With renewed urgency, I move my pinky toe again, praying I could leap over somehow and stop him in his tracks. With him gone, how will I ever learn what he meant by taking responsibility for the crime?Meanwhile, with a sigh of relief, Ma takes his place by my side. She strokes my hand, which I can’t move, and kisses my brow right over my eyes, which I can’t open to save my life. “Dear,” she begs, just as before, “give me some signal, will you?”How can I tell her where to look, where to find my response, when she focuses on the wrong end? Moving my pinky toe is far from enough. I must do more. I must learn to kick.
Except from Coma Confidential
Coma Confidential (Volume I of Ash Suspense Thrillers with a Dash of Romance)Audible: US ★ UK ★ FR ★ DEAudiobook: Amazon US ★ Amazon UK ★ iTunesPaperback: Amazon
Ash finds herself in the ER diagnosed with coma. She has no memory of what has happened to her, but what she can do--despite what everyone around her might think--is listen to the conversations of her visitors. Will she survive the power outage in the hospital and then, being kidnapped out of it?
Except from Coma Confidential
Coma Confidential (Volume I of Ash Suspense Thrillers with a Dash of Romance)Audible: US ★ UK ★ FR ★ DEAudiobook: Amazon US ★ Amazon UK ★ iTunesPaperback: Amazon
Ash finds herself in the ER diagnosed with coma. She has no memory of what has happened to her, but what she can do--despite what everyone around her might think--is listen to the conversations of her visitors. Will she survive the power outage in the hospital and then, being kidnapped out of it?
August 25, 2019
I couldn’t understand why you declined to join me on this trip
I never met Susan, never heard her voice, but I imagine it as somewhat crinkly, sinking a bit every time this letter or that falls into a crease in the paper, then rising to become audible again:
For a long time, I couldn’t understand why you declined to join me on this trip. After all, I’ve planned it exactly in accordance to your own stories, which you told me long ago, before you proposed, of your own trip down here, so I thought it would be wonderful for you, for both of us, to relive the adventures of those early days.
I can’t help but recall her last video. “You may suspect that I’m jealous of you,” she said. “And maybe part of me is, the part that has been in love with him, ever since we met.”“Oh,” I say. “What a heartwarming note.”Kabir crosses his arms over his chest, as if to say that he knows better. “I don’t read it this way.”I wonder if he ever saw that video. Probably not, or he would have destroyed it. Her next sentence there, as I remember it, was, “Now, that love is dying.”I go back to reading her note. She signs it off with,
I feared that without you I would be lonely here, but in fact, I’m beginning to feel as if I found my calling.
Excerpt from Overdose
Overdose (Ash Suspense Thrillers with a Dash of Romance)Paperback: AmazonAudiobook: Soon
Months after recovering from coma, Ash discovers that the man who performed her brain surgery has a questionable medical experience and a dark past. Should she expose him, at the risk of becoming vulnerable to his revenge?
For a long time, I couldn’t understand why you declined to join me on this trip. After all, I’ve planned it exactly in accordance to your own stories, which you told me long ago, before you proposed, of your own trip down here, so I thought it would be wonderful for you, for both of us, to relive the adventures of those early days.
I can’t help but recall her last video. “You may suspect that I’m jealous of you,” she said. “And maybe part of me is, the part that has been in love with him, ever since we met.”“Oh,” I say. “What a heartwarming note.”Kabir crosses his arms over his chest, as if to say that he knows better. “I don’t read it this way.”I wonder if he ever saw that video. Probably not, or he would have destroyed it. Her next sentence there, as I remember it, was, “Now, that love is dying.”I go back to reading her note. She signs it off with,
I feared that without you I would be lonely here, but in fact, I’m beginning to feel as if I found my calling.
Excerpt from Overdose
Overdose (Ash Suspense Thrillers with a Dash of Romance)Paperback: AmazonAudiobook: Soon
Months after recovering from coma, Ash discovers that the man who performed her brain surgery has a questionable medical experience and a dark past. Should she expose him, at the risk of becoming vulnerable to his revenge?
August 18, 2019
Twitter (and other social media channels): the secret of success
I've been asked, quite frequently, how to gain followers on Twitter. At the time of writing this answer, my audience is 43K and growing, and all along the way, this growth has been organic, without the use of any type of paid ads to sustain it. You can achieve it, too -- if you put your mind to it. Don't tell me, "But, but I only have a handful of followers." I started at 0 followers and build it up from there. You can do it too.
The secret of success — on Twitter or other social networks — is quite simple.
Find partners:
1. Be generous to others, retweet what they say, and
2. If they don’t reciprocate, try someone else.
If managed well, this can grow your audience over time. If you find partners who write in genres close to yours and who have a large audience, your word now reaches far beyond your own number of followers. Over time you will gain more followers.
There are Facebook groups focused on such reciprocation, where you give and take, so that’s one way of finding partners. This is an ongoing process, it never stops, because some of your 'partners in crime' may drop out of the game and you need to replace your retweets for them with retweets for someone else.
One more word on this: When you do find worthy partners, you can take the game to the next level. Instead of just retweeting what they say, send your own tweets about their work. You can even design your own memes for them. Such dedication, if aimed smartly, will be rewarded with their dedication for sharing your work.
Figure out what you what to say:
Now, the question becomes, what do you want to say in your tweets? How do you draw followers?
Each author has her own answer to this. Many of them just talk about sales. Buy me because I'm cheap kind-of-a-thing.
In my mind, the bombardment of free and cheap things gets annoying. My answer is different: quality, quality, quality, content, content, content. What I do, in Twitter as well as Facebook, Goodreads, and elsewhere, is start at the heart of my promotion: my blog. I write a new post every few days (sometimes daily) — an excerpt, a back story, an interview, a poem, quote from a recent review, my inspiration for designing the cover of a new release, an audio clip from the audiobook — and design a meme for it. Then I place a teaser+link to on each social network, including Twitter.
And, I save the tweet so I can use it later:
Automate:
Since I have hundreds of blogposts, I also have hundreds of tweets. I store them on a service that rotates thru them, so my tweets go on automatically without me having to attend to them. There are many such services. SocialJuxbox, Hootsuite, Twittime, and others.
To summarize: what you see on my Twitter page includes several kinds of tweets, all chirped automatically at predetermined rates:
Tweets for other authors (my partners in crime) Promos for other authors who pay me for the serviceTweets linking to blog posts. These provide content and that are the backbone of my outreach.
Be current
Tweets that are perceived as current resonate better with readers.
I organize my tweets by the season. During the summer I have images of sunsets over a beach (and related excerpts and material) which works well for my romance books; as fall sets in, you'll see a lot of red autumn leaves in my memes and a call to turn a leaf; during Christmas, it’s all Christmassy, so my covers are presented with a red ribbon, ready to be given as a gift for loved ones.
Constantly replacing my tweets according to the season is a huge effort but it makes for variety and draws in the crowd.
Hope this helps?
Best of success!
The secret of success — on Twitter or other social networks — is quite simple.
Find partners:
1. Be generous to others, retweet what they say, and
2. If they don’t reciprocate, try someone else.
If managed well, this can grow your audience over time. If you find partners who write in genres close to yours and who have a large audience, your word now reaches far beyond your own number of followers. Over time you will gain more followers.
There are Facebook groups focused on such reciprocation, where you give and take, so that’s one way of finding partners. This is an ongoing process, it never stops, because some of your 'partners in crime' may drop out of the game and you need to replace your retweets for them with retweets for someone else.
One more word on this: When you do find worthy partners, you can take the game to the next level. Instead of just retweeting what they say, send your own tweets about their work. You can even design your own memes for them. Such dedication, if aimed smartly, will be rewarded with their dedication for sharing your work.
Figure out what you what to say:
Now, the question becomes, what do you want to say in your tweets? How do you draw followers?
Each author has her own answer to this. Many of them just talk about sales. Buy me because I'm cheap kind-of-a-thing.
In my mind, the bombardment of free and cheap things gets annoying. My answer is different: quality, quality, quality, content, content, content. What I do, in Twitter as well as Facebook, Goodreads, and elsewhere, is start at the heart of my promotion: my blog. I write a new post every few days (sometimes daily) — an excerpt, a back story, an interview, a poem, quote from a recent review, my inspiration for designing the cover of a new release, an audio clip from the audiobook — and design a meme for it. Then I place a teaser+link to on each social network, including Twitter.
And, I save the tweet so I can use it later:
Automate:
Since I have hundreds of blogposts, I also have hundreds of tweets. I store them on a service that rotates thru them, so my tweets go on automatically without me having to attend to them. There are many such services. SocialJuxbox, Hootsuite, Twittime, and others.
To summarize: what you see on my Twitter page includes several kinds of tweets, all chirped automatically at predetermined rates:
Tweets for other authors (my partners in crime) Promos for other authors who pay me for the serviceTweets linking to blog posts. These provide content and that are the backbone of my outreach.
Be current
Tweets that are perceived as current resonate better with readers.
I organize my tweets by the season. During the summer I have images of sunsets over a beach (and related excerpts and material) which works well for my romance books; as fall sets in, you'll see a lot of red autumn leaves in my memes and a call to turn a leaf; during Christmas, it’s all Christmassy, so my covers are presented with a red ribbon, ready to be given as a gift for loved ones.
Constantly replacing my tweets according to the season is a huge effort but it makes for variety and draws in the crowd.
Hope this helps?
Best of success!
August 17, 2019
I stayed up all night to read it!
I just love this review for The David Chronicles: Trilogy:
Karen Dee
5.0 out of 5 stars
I stayed up all night to read it!August 14, 2019
Format: Kindle Edition
OMG I stayed up all night to read this trilogy with pots of coffee practically at my bedside. It was so good! The bible come to life. I love biblical stories more for the allegorical tales than any religious reasons. They are full of adventure, passion, lust, love, murder, evil, good and redemption. They take us to a time and place we will never know or experience except is these wonderful texts. The David Chronicles does just that. The author gives us a unique perspective of David and Bathsheba in the context of history. Their love that haunts David. The taking of Bathsheba. The murder of Uriah. It is history come to life in a way that is fresh and captivating! King David has done great things but he will forever be haunted by what he did to Bathsheba and Uriah. I just loved this trilogy. It feels like Shakespeare in the biblical times. I don't doubt he was inspired by the many biblical stories. The writer makes you feel you are a fly on the wall of history watching a great man do bad things and fall from grace. I loved this trilogy and I hope there are more stories to come!
Karen Dee
5.0 out of 5 stars
I stayed up all night to read it!August 14, 2019Format: Kindle Edition
OMG I stayed up all night to read this trilogy with pots of coffee practically at my bedside. It was so good! The bible come to life. I love biblical stories more for the allegorical tales than any religious reasons. They are full of adventure, passion, lust, love, murder, evil, good and redemption. They take us to a time and place we will never know or experience except is these wonderful texts. The David Chronicles does just that. The author gives us a unique perspective of David and Bathsheba in the context of history. Their love that haunts David. The taking of Bathsheba. The murder of Uriah. It is history come to life in a way that is fresh and captivating! King David has done great things but he will forever be haunted by what he did to Bathsheba and Uriah. I just loved this trilogy. It feels like Shakespeare in the biblical times. I don't doubt he was inspired by the many biblical stories. The writer makes you feel you are a fly on the wall of history watching a great man do bad things and fall from grace. I loved this trilogy and I hope there are more stories to come!
August 15, 2019
Someone is listening to every word you say, every word you hear
If you can not see this chirbit, listen to it here https://chirb.it/7AK1db
The next morning, Karishma texts me.
I was right about one thing
I ask,
What’s that?
She replies,
Someone is listening to every word you say, every word you hear.
I ask,
What?How d’you know that?
Karishma replies:
Because coming to work, this is what I’ve found at the doorstep just now.
The image she sends shows three chickens. Only one of them is still alive, picking at the slit necks of the other two. I’ve wanted to learn more about the unlikely friendship between these women—Karishma and her two friends, Martha and Susan—but at this point, I can’t bring myself to text any questions, nor do I want to talk to her. In the near future I must isolate myself. I must become a recluse, because somewhere out there, a stranger may be reading my words, recording them, examining every little thing I want to hold secret. Worse of all, I have no idea how he’s managed to get this close to me. The pink cellphone has been spoofed—of that I’m convinced—so it can’t transmit any sounds, any signals. Even so, there must be a backup method, one I haven’t yet managed to discover, by which my privacy is being violated.I try to recall if anyone stood next to us when Karishma relayed her story about the sacrifice, but all I draw is a blank.The image is even more disturbing on a second and third look. How else can it be interpreted but as a threat to her, and a warning to me?
Overdose (Volume III of Ash Suspense Thrillers with a Dash of Romance)Paperback: AmazonAudiobook: Soon
Months after recovering from coma, Ash discovers that the man who performed her brain surgery has a questionable medical experience and a dark past. Should she expose him, at the risk of becoming vulnerable to his revenge?
The next morning, Karishma texts me.
I was right about one thing
I ask,
What’s that?
She replies,
Someone is listening to every word you say, every word you hear.
I ask,
What?How d’you know that?
Karishma replies:
Because coming to work, this is what I’ve found at the doorstep just now.
The image she sends shows three chickens. Only one of them is still alive, picking at the slit necks of the other two. I’ve wanted to learn more about the unlikely friendship between these women—Karishma and her two friends, Martha and Susan—but at this point, I can’t bring myself to text any questions, nor do I want to talk to her. In the near future I must isolate myself. I must become a recluse, because somewhere out there, a stranger may be reading my words, recording them, examining every little thing I want to hold secret. Worse of all, I have no idea how he’s managed to get this close to me. The pink cellphone has been spoofed—of that I’m convinced—so it can’t transmit any sounds, any signals. Even so, there must be a backup method, one I haven’t yet managed to discover, by which my privacy is being violated.I try to recall if anyone stood next to us when Karishma relayed her story about the sacrifice, but all I draw is a blank.The image is even more disturbing on a second and third look. How else can it be interpreted but as a threat to her, and a warning to me?
Overdose (Volume III of Ash Suspense Thrillers with a Dash of Romance)Paperback: AmazonAudiobook: Soon
Months after recovering from coma, Ash discovers that the man who performed her brain surgery has a questionable medical experience and a dark past. Should she expose him, at the risk of becoming vulnerable to his revenge?
August 11, 2019
A really great book!
Short and sweet review for The David Chronicles: Trilogy:
mona williams
4.0 out of 5 stars
a really great book!August 10, 2019
Format: Kindle Edition
wow i sure learned alot about history i never knew reading this book! its history that is rewritten a different way than from what i learned years ago. you must read this whole book!
mona williams
4.0 out of 5 stars
a really great book!August 10, 2019Format: Kindle Edition
wow i sure learned alot about history i never knew reading this book! its history that is rewritten a different way than from what i learned years ago. you must read this whole book!
August 7, 2019
Made the USA Today Bestselling list
A big thank you to my wonderful readers! Thanks to you and thanks to the talents of the authors in the team of Do No Harm, we made the USA Today Bestselling list today!!!
New release! Get it now: Do No Harm
New release! Get it now: Do No Harm
August 6, 2019
Overdose: #1 new release
Overdose is my new thriller, scheduled for release on 9/9/2019 (I just like the look of this date.) It is already a #1 new release on Amazon, check it out:
Be the first to read it! Preorder it now: Overdose (Volume III of Ash Suspense Thrillers with a Dash of Romance)Paperback: AmazonAudiobook: Soon
Months after recovering from coma, Ash discovers that the man who performed her brain surgery has a questionable medical experience and a dark past. Should she expose him, at the risk of becoming vulnerable to his revenge?
Be the first to read it! Preorder it now: Overdose (Volume III of Ash Suspense Thrillers with a Dash of Romance)Paperback: AmazonAudiobook: Soon
Months after recovering from coma, Ash discovers that the man who performed her brain surgery has a questionable medical experience and a dark past. Should she expose him, at the risk of becoming vulnerable to his revenge?
Humbling Experience of a read
Just discovered this lovely review of my WWII thriller, Marriage before Death:
Sharon Richmond
5.0 out of 5 stars
Humbling Experience of a read.August 24, 2017
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
What a humbling experience the author weaves together with this story.
Not a book to be glanced through tho, the details of the storyline is what makes this such a great book.
A Historical Romance that will really leave an impression on the reader. The ending is bittersweet.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced reader copy of the book by it's author.
Reviewer for Nook Books and More Blog.
Sharon Richmond
5.0 out of 5 stars
Humbling Experience of a read.August 24, 2017Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
What a humbling experience the author weaves together with this story.Not a book to be glanced through tho, the details of the storyline is what makes this such a great book.
A Historical Romance that will really leave an impression on the reader. The ending is bittersweet.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced reader copy of the book by it's author.
Reviewer for Nook Books and More Blog.
