A.L. Butcher's Blog, page 85

Crónicas de la luz más allá de la tormenta – Light Beyond the Storm – Spanish Edition

En un mundo oscuro donde la magia es ilegal y los elfos son esclavos, una joven hechicera elfa huye de la casa de su malvado Cuidador para salvar la vida. Perseguida por sus hombres y por los corruptos Cazadores de Brujas, debe encontrar un refugio. Mientras los esclavistas recorren todos los lugares llevándose a los elfos de lo que queda de sus hogares ancestrales, y los Cazadores de Brujas hacen la vista gorda ante la tragedia, se fragua una historia de poder, amor y una terrible venganza.

https://books2read.com/LBTS-Spanish

#Elfos, #Fantasía, #Fantasía oscura, #Fantasía erótica, #Magia

2020 Writing Round-up

I had all sorts of plans in 2020. Didn’t everyone? 

Stress does not help with the writing process. Some people thrive on stress – I am not one of those people. I looked at my writing plan and knew I hadn’t fulfilled it. However when I investigated further – it was not as bad as I thought.

10 Bundles – not quite one a month 

Here Be Elves

Here Be Brave New Worlds

Here Be Aliens

Light Beyond the Storm Box Set 

Blood on the Cobbles

Angels and Demons

Rainbow Romance

Here Be Pirates 

Here Be Trolls

Here be Zombies

Also Heroika Skirmishers

Print edition of Dark Tales and Twisted Verses, several large print editions and many translation editions. 

I’ve finished a course on Editing and Proofreading, and 19 work-related courses.

Editing for Perseid Press and some freelance editing.

I now have a Fiverr profile.

All things considered, not too shoddy.

In 2021 I plan to finish a couple of novellas, get some more translations sorted, find more editing clients and continue learning Photoshop.

2020 – Get you gone!

2020 – the year everything changed. 2020 – the year everyone wants to forget, but no one will.

The Coronavirus – Covid 19 was first identified in the city of Wuhan in China, at the end of 2019 and the World Health Organisation declared an International Public Health Emergency in January 2020. That bastard spread. As of October 2020, WHO estimated 10% of the world’s population had been infected, and over 1.7 million people have lost their lives. Many more have lost their jobs, businesses or been left with long lasting health issues.

Suddenly social distancing came into force, millions of Brits (and elsewhere) were furloughed. Most of these folks had never even heard this term before March 2020. Capitalism and economies around the world trembled.

Politicians took decisions, failed to take decisions, took the wrong decisions, took more stringent decisions and then it all began again.  

Then there was the US election….

2020 was a year of reflection, a year to consider others and doing one’s duty to protect one’s fellows. Many did, some didn’t. There were conspiracies aplenty – protests in the streets (which did nothing to slow the spread of the virus). There was Captain, Sir Tom Moore – a world war 2 veteran who pledged to walk 100 laps of his garden to raise a £1000 for NHS charities. He stole the heart of a nation and raised £32 million – this humble man who had given so much before gave again and brought the nation hope in humanity. Others followed, the old, the young, rich and poor. Concerts were staged online, carehome workers moved in to protect their residents and did not see their own families for months. Strangers stood together (socially distanced) and clapped for the NHS. There’s a good possibility that this awful pandemic saved the NHS – especially after the Prime Minister got the virus.

It brought out the good in people, and the bad and downright stupid. In my town we had a businessman who knowing he had been exposed not only flew abroad, but opened his shop, refused to mask and cited Magna Carta ‘for his rights’. Wrongly. The part he cited was not only repealed and has not been law for 800 years but was never meant for the common person. World leaders ignored the advice, the science and infected their staff.

2020 – the year of stupid, the year of science, the year of humble folks uniting nations, the year capitalism and politics were found wanting. (If they hadn’t been before.)

As the year draws to it’s close, I doubt there is anyone who will not be glad to see the back of it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Tom

Power Automate – A Marketing Tool for Writers – Part 1

I am fairly new to the word of Power Automate – also known as Microsoft Flow – but I have to say – it’s awesome. You do need Microsoft 365 and the basic, free package is not as versatile as the paid packages, but it’s useful nonetheless.

https://unitedkingdom.flow.microsoft.com/en-us/

Basically it’s a tool in which the user can set up ‘flows’ – for example – I have several tweets scheduled at specific times. Flow will tweet the text I put in, to the Twitter account of my choice and fetch the image I want attached from dropbox, (or any of the other apps available) and post it on a specific day at a specific time. Another option – I have set to to email me when a certain phrase is tweeted – so I can see how many times it’s retweeted. You could have a book title, a specific phrase or username. It’s a good way of seeing how much traffic your tweets get. It has over 400 connections to services like Twitter, Trello, Sharepoint and lots more.

I use it in the day job to log the responses from forms to an excel document, but it can email a specific user informing them a new response has been posted.

You can make an automated flow – in my case emailing me when a certain twitter phrase is used; a scheduled flow – to go out on this day, at this time, with this frequency. It can do more (but I haven’t investigated it that far.

So far I have 50 flows set up, mostly to tweet and track tweets.

Power automate provide templates for the more common tasks, but you can set up you own.

There are guided tutorials https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/paths/automate-process-power-automate/

You can automate 3 types of flows

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/flow-types

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/get-started-flows/1-introduction

To set up a flow you click on CREATE FLOW

If I want to make a scheduled flow for example a twitter post) I would click scheduled flow, add in the set up details as below

Flow name – You can call this anything.

Run this flow – this would be the date you want to start the actions – it defaults to today at 10am but you can change it.

Repeat every – pick a number (1 day, 1 days etc). If you choose week – then you can select specific days of the week

Hit create

This will take you to this screen

Click NEW STEP (this will then allow you to add an action)

If you can’t find the connectors – type POST A TWEET (or whatever) in the box. You will have to grant Power Automate access to Twitter (this is true of the other connections, like dropbox), but it is secure.

Add in the tweet text – including the URL if you have one. You are limited the the character restrictions on twitter. If you want to add images then you would add another step – and select where the image is adding the file path. Th

In the top right you can save, check the stages and test. The flow checker will let you know if there are errors and how to fix them. It’s a good idea to test the flow – this can be done manually (you will need to do this the first time), or automatically – this will duplicate a previous successful run. You will then get a link to the FLOW RUNS page and this will let you know if your flow is successful.

How is this useful for writers? You can set up tweets, post to various newsletters, or get followers. I think you can back up documents using an automated flow.

More time to write:)

La ciudad de la Luz #Fantasía #Edición en español

¿Quién gobierna en este juego de intriga donde la magia está prohibida y los elfos esclavizados? Un viaje donde las creencias se rompen como el vidrio, la verdad no es bienvenida y abundan los monstruos de la antigüedad: comparte el romance y la venganza, la magia y la pasión, y el salario de la codicia en un mundo de fantasía oscura.

(18 clasificados – contiene escenas de naturaleza sexual y violencia)

#Fantasía

#Fantasía oscura

#Romance de fantasía

#Edición en español

https://books2read.com/Spanish-Shining-Citadel

Il Segreto di Blossom Rise – Edizione italiana

Quando una giovane infermiera accetta un lavoro in un vecchio ospedale militare, scoprirà un segreto di famiglia e troverà i suoi spettrali occupanti un po’ troppo familiari.

https://books2read.com/BlossomRise-Italian

#Fantasmi, #Paranormale, #Horror, #StoriaBreve

Tears and Crimson Velvet – Short Story winner 2020

Tears and Crimson Velvet has won best Short Story for 2020 on the NN Light Book Heaven reviewer site.

https://www.nnlightsbookheaven.com/post/2020-nnlight-book-award-winners 

See the comments from the site below

Tears and Crimson Velvet by A.L. Butcher

Someone haunts the Opera House and while Madam Giry tries to keep her distance when the hauntings turn to murder, she knows she must act. Will she finally break her silence about what is going on or will she do what is necessary to protect those she loves?

For fans of Phantom of the Opera, this is a must-read. A.L. Butcher weaves a masterful story filled with emotion, angst, mystery, and murder. I do believe Gaston Leroux would consider this variation on his immortal tale a wonderful addition to his work, The Phantom of the Opera.

In the original story, Madam Giry is a mysterious character and the reader is left wondering whose side she’s on. Christine’s? Erik’s? In this tale, Butcher takes us inside the mind of Madam Giry and what she knows about the hauntings and the Phantom himself.

A brilliant short story that tore my heart out. Highly recommend!

Madame Giry finds herself embroiled in the tragedy unfolding at the Opera house; mystery and murder stalk the corridors and, it is said, a ghost haunts the place. Giry knows the truth, for she recalls the caged man she met so many years ago. This is her story, their story.

When murder and mystery begin at the Opera House one woman knows who is behind it, and what really lies beneath the mask. Secrets, lies and tragedy sing a powerful song in this ‘might have been’ tale.

https://books2read.com/TearsandCrimson

Broken Toys – Blog Tour #Thriller

Broken Toys
by Glenda Thompson
Genre: Thriller



Texas Ranger Noah Morgan has his life together—with a great job and the girl of his dreams. Too bad it’s all based on a lie. A single phone call threatens to bring it all crashing down. After an irate citizen complains shoddy workmanship has left him with a booby-trapped driveway, and the local sheriff’s office is too busy to respond, Noah takes the call. The investigation of local scam artists uncovers a human trafficking ring. Noah fights to avoid being swept back into the sights of his murderous family—people he escaped at the age of seventeen.

Can he keep his past a secret or will his carefully crafted life come to a violent end?

Goodreads * Amazon





A sixth-generation Texan with Scottish roots, Glenda Thompson can ‘bless your heart’ with the best of them. As a former emergency medical technician married to a south Texas Lawman, she’s used insider information from both their careers as inspiration to build her Broken world of Texas Rangers with hidden pasts and dark secrets. When she’s not busy embarrassing her children or grandchildren by dancing in the middle of a country road during a rainstorm, she can be found huddled in her writing cave with her law enforcement technical adviser/husband working on another story in her Broken universe.

Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram * Amazon * Goodreads




Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!

$25 Amazon

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tears and Crimson Velvet – NN Light Awards – Finalist

Hurrah! I am delighted to announce Tears and Crimson Velvet is a finalist in the NN Light Book Heaven category for short stories in 2020

https://www.nnlightsbookheaven.com/post/2020-nnlight-book-awards-finalists

 

Madame Giry finds herself embroiled in the tragedy unfolding at the Opera house; mystery and murder stalk the corridors and, it is said, a ghost haunts the place. Giry knows the truth, for she recalls the caged man she met so many years ago. This is her story, their story.

When murder and mystery begin at the Opera House one woman knows who is behind it, and what really lies beneath the mask. Secrets, lies and tragedy sing a powerful song in this ‘might have been’ tale.

A short, tragic tale based on characters from Phantom of the Opera.

A Legacy of the Mask Tale.

https://books2read.com/TearsandCrimson

December Indie Authors Bookish Event

Enter to win an e-book bundle of all 27 books featured in the Indie Authors Bookish Event on NN Light Book Heaven:

https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/92db775089

Open Internationally.

Runs December 8 – December 13, 2020.

Winner will be drawn on December 16, 2020.

All spotlights will be grouped together at this link.

https://www.nnlightsbookheaven.com/indie-authors-bookish-event

Features from

Jami Gray

P.L. Parker

Carla Krae

Marlo Berliner

Brenda Whiteside

Sharon Buchbinder

Natalina Reis

Robyn Rychards

Cynthia Woolf

Jennifer Wilck

Theresa Dale

A.L. Butcher

Cadence Vonn

Marie Tuhart

Lis Anna-Langston

A.D. Britten

N. Christine Samuelson

Marie Tuhart

Claire Marti

Sherry

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