Victoria Zigler's Blog: Zigler News, page 122

#Writing Wednesday - March 8th 2017

If you missed my post from Monday, you may want to check it out. The 2017 Smashwords Read An eBook Week promotion is going on right now... See my post from Monday for more details.

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Are you struggling with writers' block? If so, try these five ways to beat writers' block.

However, if you're not struggling to get your writing done, so don't need those tips right now, feel free to skip them and check out the other links I have for you this week. Alternatively, you could always take a look anyway, and bear them in mind in case you need them in future... Just a thought! Either way, here are the other links:

Should you write a prologue for your book, or would it be better to forget about having one? The choice is ultimately up to you, but here's an article on the seven deadly sins of prologues, which discusses what does and doesn't work when it comes to prologues, and will help you decide if you should write one or not.

Regardless of how you start your story, if your characters need some adventuring tips, get them to take a look at Luke Callindor's tips to adventuring. These tips will especially be useful for characters from fantasy stories. Some of them are great tips for any characters venturing out of town during their stories though, even if it's meant to be just for a short camping trip. Also, failure to follow some of Luke's advice could make for some potentially tense moments in the story... Just something for any writers reading this to bear in mind.

Anyway, do you have a character - or a group of characters - tracking another in your story? If so, here are some tips on writing tracking scenes without them becoming boring for the reader.

To hyphenate, or not to hyphenate, that is the question. Well, maybe it isn't. But if it is in your case, perhaps this post on how hyphens are the devil will help you find the answer.

Are "ing" words good or bad? You decide.

OK, that's about it for today. I'll just end today's post with a great blog post about the writer's rollercoaster.

#Smashwords #ebookweek17 - Zeena Dragon Fae Series On #SALE!

The ninth annual Smashwords Read an eBook Week promotion kicked off yesterday (Sunday March 5th 2017) and runs through to the end of the day on Saturday March 11th 2017.

I've enrolled my entire Zeena Dragon Fae series in the promotion. They're 75% off, which means you can get all four books in the series for the price of one. Of course, this is exclusively on Smashwords. But since they offer a good choice of formats, and I enable all of the available ones for my books, you'll easily find a format that works for you, regardless of your eReading device of choice. In fact, if you can read this post, there'll be a way you can read my books. In other words, unless you read exclusively physical copies of books, this is a great chance to get an excellent deal.

The books in the series are as follows:

1. Zeena And The Dryad
2. Zeena And The Gryphon
3. Zeena And The Mermaid
4. Zeena And The Phoenix

Simply click on the book titles to go to their Smashwords pages. Then enter coupon code RAE75 at checkout to get any - or all - the books in the Zeena Dragon Fae series for 75% off. Yes, it is the same code for all four books.

I'm not the only author to enroll, so don't forget you can also check out what other books are on sale this week. Some examples of authors with books in the sale can also be found by checking out this post on the Smashwords Authors group on Goodreads. Not everyone enables all formats though, so be sure to check format availability before you buy.

Oh, and feel free to share this post with anyone and everyone.

Remember: Sale ends March 11th 2017.

Tori's February 2017 #Book #Reviews (LBE)

It's time to take a look at what I read in Febuary.

As with the previous posts like this one, if you want to know more about the book, or the author, click on whichever it is you want to learn more about, and it will take you to the appropriate page on Goodreads. Clicking on my rating should take you to my actual Goodreads review for the book in question.

Don't forget: the format I've reviewed may not be the format I read. Also, please remember that I read across multiple genres and age ranges, so you should always check if a book is suitable for the intended reader, especially when children are involved. Sometimes reading the book's description on its Goodreads page will be enough for this, but other times you may need to check elsewhere to figure out the genre and/or recommended reading level.

OK... On to the reviews!

Bite Me If You Can by Lynsay Sands
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
An excellent - and often entertaining - addition to the series, which fans of vampire themed romance novels will love.

Empress Matilda of England by Laurel A. Rockefeller
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a well-written and well-researched book, which makes for an enjoyable and educational read for history lovers of all ages.

A Day On The Pond by Kevin Roland Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A really cute and fun little story.

Super Sporty 9: The Wrath of Titanicus by Ellie Firestone
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is an excellent ending to a great series, which lovers of horses and super hero stories will enjoy.

Vampires are Forever by Lynsay Sands
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Another excellent addition to the series, with plenty of romance and mystery in the plot, and a great cast of characters.

Vampire, Interrupted by Lynsay Sands
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Another excellent addition to the series. This book is a perfect example of how, while able to be read in any order, due to being complete stories in their own right, the books in the series are best read in chronological order, since they can contain spoilers for previous books in the series.

The Savage Stone Age by Terry Deary
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
An interesting - though often disgusting - look at history, which will appeal to many children, though may not be for the squeemish or easily upset.

The Measly Middle Ages by Terry Deary
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
An interesting, though often disgusting, look at history, which will appeal to children who enjoy gory details, and have the stomach for them.

The Awesome Egyptians by Terry Deary
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Another interesting - and often gory - look at history, which will appeal to any young history lover who has the stomach for it. A great addition to the series, though a difficult one to fully appreciate if you're using text to speach to read the book, since some of the details are lost among images.

The Cut-throat Celts by Terry Deary
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
An interesting look at Celtic history. Like the other books I've read from this series so far, this is a great book, if you can stomach the gory details, but a frustrating one to read if you're using text to speach, since you miss parts of it due to them being displayed in what are essentially images.

The Groovy Greeks by Terry Deary
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
An interesting look at Greek history, with some Roman history thrown in; a great read for history lovers, especially if you enjoy the gory parts of history, though a more user friendly history book for the sighted than for the visually impaired.

Angry Aztecs by Terry Deary
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
An interesting look in to the history of the Maya and Aztecs, which is perfect for any history lover who can deal with the gory bits of history, though you'll miss bits if you're using text to speach to read this book. Also, it was entertaining reading a book that was insisting the world would end four years before the date I read it... Guess they got that prediction wrong. *wink*

The Hammer of Thor by Rick Riordan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A great addition to the series, which makes for a fantastic read for those who enjoy stories about the Gods of legends, and are fans of the Percy Jackson books.

The Adventures of Rocky and the Bear Claw Club: The Legend of the Pirate Blackbear's Lost Gold Pinecone: The Threat of the Wolfkang Clan by Steven Allan Pease
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The plot is creative, though rather slow paced, which some readers may not like. The cast of characters is excellent though. The only things that stop me giving this book five stars are the fact the ending felt a bit sudden to me (I hate cliffhanger endings, and felt like we were just getting to the real action when the ending came) and the fact the author kept jumping between past and present tense (sometimes in the same sentence). Other than those things, this was a great read.

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Goodreads recently added a feature where you can track rereads of books.

This is a great thing for those who keep track of that sort of thing, but a bad thing for site accessability with screen readers, since clicking on the option to add the dates a book was read sometimes results in it deciding you must be wanting to mark a reread date. This means I have to save my review, check it to make sure it's only listing one set of dates, and go back in to delete the extra set of dates if it got confused and listed me as having read it twice (which you'd think it wouldn't do if the dates were identical, but it does).

Still, there is one good thing: at least this is a site update that most people are pleased to have, unlike all the "improvements" - a word I'm using very loosely - Facebook keeps making.

#Furkid Friday: Three More Ways Kero Has Influenced My #Writing

As I mentioned in the comments section of my post containing facts about my "Kero's World" books last month, Kero has had obvious influence on my writing in other ways too. So, before I return to my regular "Furkid Friday" posts, here are the other ways Kero has obviously influenced things to do with my writing:

1. Cubby the polar bear from "Cubby And The Beanstalk" was loosely based on Kero. One of Kero's nicknames was Cubby, which evolved from someone mishearing when we called him K.B. (the latter being a nickname my Mam started, thinking Keroberous was two words). Both nicknames stuck, and stayed with him his entire life. Add to that the fact he was a white dog, who reminded me of a big cuddly teddybear, especially when he needed a haircut, and you can see why Cubby was a polar bear. I'm not sure why I decided to base the bear that was the main character on Kero like that, but it felt right at the time.

2. Yua the Westie from "Yua And The Great Wizard Hunt" was based on Kero, and was my attempt at putting him in a fantasy story. He's not 100% Kero, but he has a lot of Kero's traits and behaviours. Also, he got his name in the same way: Yua is, like the name Keroberous, an alternative spelling of a name I got from a cartoon I enjoyed. I'd changed the spelling of Kero's name to how I thought it looked better, and did the same with Yua's name. I didn't make a big deal out of mentioning this though, since it's not obvious where I got the names from, even if you're familiar with the cartoon, due to my changing the spelling, and both names actually being genuine Japenese names to start with (or, at least, Americanized versions of Japenese names). Also, this is the only book of mine with a dedication to date. It's dedicated to Kero, of course; we lost Kero while I was writing it, and I dedicated it to him when I was done.

3. I sort of publish my paperback books under both Kero's name and my own; my paperback books are still published by me, under my own name as the author, but my publisher name, for the purpose of publishing my paperback books, is Keroberous Publishing, in Kero's honour. I did consider adding that to my eBooks too, but due to how many books I'd published before I started using Keroberous publishing, I decided to just leave only my own name on the eBooks, and just use Keroberous Publishing for the publisher name on the paperbacks. It's still me, either way, and it's not unusual for different formats to be published by different publishers, anyhow.

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Want to buy your own copy of Yua And The Great Wizard Hunt? Or, perhaps you'd like a copy of Cubby And The Beanstalk?

As with all my other books, you can buy them as eBooks from Smashwords, as well as from Barnes & Noble, Apple iBooks, Kobo, and a few other eBook retailers. Alternatively, you can buy them as paperbacks from CreateSpace, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and a couple of other online retailers. They're also available to order from libraries in any format, assuming your library supports this feature, and either already carries them, or is willing to get copies.

R.I.P. Baggins

(Above photo of Baggins the gerbil taken this afternoon).

Baggins was fine this morning. This afternoon he was a little quiet, and not his usual bouncy self, but we weren't too concerned. This evening he got worse. Then - around 8:45pm - we lost him. We suspect it was a stroke, since he seemed to suddenly lose control of his body and become weak, followed by a few seizures, and then his little heart giving out.

Baggins was getting up there in years for a gerbil; he turned three in early January. But that fact doesn't make it any easier. We're still going to miss the little guy.

He was a friendly and happy little gerbil, who could have taught a lot of people some valuable lessons about not stressing over things you can't control. Even after losing his brother, Bilbo, almost a year ago, he still kept his cheerful and positive attitude.

Rest in peace, little gerbil pal... We'll miss you!

R.I.P. Baggins
January 6th 2014 - March 2nd 2017

#Writing Wednesday - March 1st 2017

For various reasons, which I won't bore you with the details of right now, I haven't made much progress with the story I'm working on, but have written several poems over the past month. Perhaps the poetry collection will be ready before the story? It's starting to look that way, anyhow. Well... I don't suppose it really matters which book is ready first, does it?

Are you a writer too? If so, here's some great advice on how to be taken seriously as a writer, and what to do if that still doesn't work.

Is your hero - or heroine - off on an adventure or quest? If not, why not? If so, where are they going, and why? Figuring that out is why people are reading your book, so make sure they have a good reason, and try to make it interesting. If you can also make it a dangerous adventure/quest, that will add to the excitement for your reader... Just saying.

Are you ready for your work to be edited? Then you may want to take a look at this post on the four different kinds of editing, so you know which it is you need to ask your chosen editor about.

Finally, if you're one of those people who enjoys crafty projects, and you're looking for a fun option for marketing, why not give these book charms a go?

#TV Talk And #Movie Mutterings - February 2017

It's time to take a look at this month's new to me movies and TV shows.

As with the previous posts like this one, just click on the titles to go to a page where you can find out more details about the movie or TV show in question; the title links will usually take you to a page on IMDB.

OK...

Super Rhino (2009 video/TV short):
I absolutely adore the "Bolt" movie (even though I can't watch it without crying) and thought Rhino was just adorable in it, so was glad to see Rhino had his own show... Even if it's a really short one. Anyway, I thought this was a really cute and entertaining little show. I give it five out of five stars.

Finding Dory (2016 movie):
I loved Dory in "Finding Nemo" so was eager to see this movie. I'm pleased to report that I was not disappointed. This was a really sweet movie, which the whole family will enjoy. I give this movie a well deserved five out of five stars.

That's all I watched this month, unless you count repeats of movies I've seen before, or reruns of shows I already know I enjoy, which I don't... This is a post for "new to me" movies and TV shows, after all. Not that I watched many repeats or reruns either, since I really didn't watch much TV in February.

#Vegetarian Friendly #Food Themed Thoughts - #Valentines 2017 Edition (FD)

Yes, I know Valentine's Day was almost two weeks ago. We didn't do our actual celebration until the 20th though.

Well, actually, if you want to be technical, our Valentine's celebrations lasted an entire week, since Kelly brought me some chocolate to actually have on Valentine's Day, and came home with a heart shaped tub of big juicy strawberries a few days later. But I wasn't going to write a post for those. Not that I don't appreciate those things... They were really sweet (no pun intended). In fact, I almost took a photo of my tub of strawberries to put in this post. I only didn't because I got distracted by eating them, and I figured the empty tub wouldn't have the same impact without the big juicy strawberries for you to drool over. *wink*

Anyway, it's our official celebration I want to talk about in this post.

Back in January we noticed that a French cafe had opened nearby. To be honest, we have no idea when it opened. There's been a cafe of some sort there for a long while, but it's changed hands a few times, and changed names and cuisines in the process. Anyway, we noticed it's now a French cafe, and I decided I wanted to give it a try. After all, the one thing we could tell at once it did was French pastries, and I used to love the ones I had from the French market that used to set up near here when we first moved here (the French market moved to town proper, and we've never seen it when we've been in there, not even on what's considered the town's official market day). I also love the few French pastries our local bakery does... Especially their croissants.

We figured, what better time to go to a French cafe than Valentine's Day, right? Except Valentine's Day fell during half term week here (meaning schools were closed for the week) and that combined with how just about everyone eats out or orders in for Valentine's Day as a general rule - something I'm pretty sure happens worldwide - made me reluctant to go on the day itself, since it was most likely going to be quite busy. So we decided to arrange to go there for breakfast the Monday after Valentine's Day, when school was back on, and everyone else had hopefully done their celebrating, so things would be quieter, and we could enjoy a peaceful late Valentine's breakfast.

Anyway...

There were several vegetarian options on the menu, though for most of them you need to enjoy humus or spicy food. I'm not a huge fan of either, to be honest. It's not that I absolutely won't eat anything with humus in it, or that I absolutely won't eat spicy food. But I prefer milder spices, and I'm not a huge humus fan. Anyway, I did still have a few options to choose from, including being able to pick my own omelette fillings. Plus, I could have tried the spicy or humus-based meals, if I really wanted to.

I almost got pancakes, but in the end I ended up deciding on an omelette. I had an omelette with kale and mushrooms, as well as an almond croissant and a lemon-filled French macaroon, and some mint tea (not a very French breakfast drink, perhaps, but it was what I wanted). I'd never had a kale and mushroom omelette before. Actually, unless it was in something and I'm forgetting, I'm pretty sure I've never had kale before in general. Anyway, the food was really good. Not amazing, but certainly enjoyable.

Kelly had what they called a French breakfast, but was closer to the English breakfast in my opinion (it consisted of eggs, bacon, sausage, tomatoes, beans, toast, and I think mushrooms too) as well as a vanilla latte. His toast was cooked more than he'd have liked, plus it was stone cold when it got to the table, though the latter of those seemed to bother me more than it did him. Also, the eggs weren't really to his liking, though that might just be a personal preference thing. Other than that though, he really enjoyed his breakfast too. Like me, however, he thought it was really good, but not amazing.

Our only real issue with the place was the cost. The portion sizes were smaller than we're used to, which we're not complaining about, since many countries do smaller portion sizes than the US, Canada, and the UK do. But we were paying at least twice the cost for those smaller portions than we usually pay elsewhere for twice the food, making for a rather expensive breakfast. We didn't mind too much, since it was a special Valentine's meal. But it does make us reluctant to consider making this a cafe we'd visit regularly.

So, would we go again? Yes. But only very rarely, due to the high cost of eating there.

If you're interested: If I was to rate the place, I'd give it four out of five stars.

#Furkid Friday: 6 Facts About My #Degu's Day Out #Book

Throughout February, in place of my usual "Furkid Friday" posts, I'll be sharing some facts about certain animal stories my furry family members have inspired. You may already know these facts, but I thought I'd share them, just in case you don't and are interested. I hope you enjoy these posts.

This week it's the turn of my stand-alone story, Degu's Day Out.

1. The story is based on a time when one of our degus escaped from his cage, after we neglected to double-check the latch on the cage door, and we were alerted to the fact by our Westie, Kero (who we still had at the time of the escape, but not at the time of the story's publication). If you're really curious... It was Jasper who inspired the story.

2. The dog in the story is loosely based on our West Highland White Terrier, Kero, but was given a name randomly chosen by my hubby, since I didn't want to use Kero's name in the book.

3. The book was almost turned in to a third book for my "Degu Days Duo" series. But I didn't want to change that in to a trilogy, since I'd been promoting it as a duology for so long, so I made Degu's Day Out a stand-alone story instead, and reduced the number of degus in it to just two, since I didn't feel I needed to include all four when it wasn't officially about my boys.

4. The main degu in the story, Oscar, is named after the littermate of Luna (the female degu we adopted a couple of years ago). He was never part of our family, having been rehomed elsewhere. But it was the first name that sprang to mind when I wanted a name for a male degu other than those I'd already used with my boys. Neither Luna nor Oscar survived to see the book's publication.

5. Though the story is based on actual events, the house Oscar explores in it doesn't exist. At least, not to my knowledge. When I decided to completely fictionalize the story, I also completely changed the description of the rooms he explores, so they no longer resemble my home in any way.

6. As I mentioned in my post about my other degu books a couple of weeks ago, to date, Degu's Day Out is the best selling of all of my books.

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Want to buy your own copy of Degu's Day Out? Or, any of my other books, for that matter.

You can buy all of my books as eBooks from Smashwords, as well as from Barnes & Noble, Apple iBooks, Kobo, and a few other eBook retailers. Alternatively, you can buy them as paperbacks from CreateSpace, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and a couple of other online retailers. They're also available to order from libraries in any format, assuming your library supports this feature, and either already carries them, or is willing to get copies.

#Writing Wednesday - February 22nd 2017

In case you missed my posts for Saturday and Tuesday...

Saarik the pixie was interviewed on Lisa Burton Radio. You can click here to read Saarik's interview.

Also, I was interviewed on Coffee With Architects Of Worlds Afar, and you can click here to read my interview.

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Are you a writer too? Or, perhaps, you just want to be one? Regardless of which applies to you, here's a fun little post on writing a first draft - what it's really like.

No matter what stage you're at in your current writing project, here are seven tips to putting vehicles in fiction, in case your characters want to use more than just their own feet - or wings, or whatever - to get around.

Last, but certainly not least, make sure you're writing with a purpose... Regardless of what that purpose might be.