Gwen Gardner's Blog, page 27

My Anniversary and Ransom

Happy Anniversary!


My husband and I just celebrated our
 25th
Anniversary.
Twenty-Five years ago I wasn't thinking much beyond the present, so when I reach a milestone like this, it just blows me away!

~On The Menu~Grilled steak with sauteed mushroomsBaked potato (butter, sour cream and chives)Mouton Cadet (red wine)
~Entertainment~Dancing by Candlelight andPandora, featuring:
Unforgettable - Nat King ColeMoonlight in Vermont - Billie HollidayAt Last - Etta James
(I was so born in the wrong era!)
~Card exchange~
For My WifeWe're perfect for each otherbecause we both love the simple things -taking a long walk together,spending a night in with a good movie,or eating at oneof our favorite restaurants. No one else "gets" melike you do,and no other womancould ever take your place in my life."Happy Birthday"With All My Love.........*needle scratches across record*
Me: Um...birthday?Hubs: Oh... It was in the anniversary slot.
Well, we had a good laugh (coz that's what you do after twenty-five years) and agreed that I would get my 25th anniversary card for my birthday in April.
**********************************************And now that the anniversary is over....
I'm being held for ransom.That's right, R-A-N-S-O-M.Over at Writers 4 Writers.
Okay, they're calling it "bail."Please tune in Monday to hear their demands...
***********************
Any anniversary, birthday or valentine's day stories you'd like to share?

Can you meet #W4WS demands on Monday?

Marketing Paranormal Romance By An Expert!

While I'm off gallivanting with Angela Brown over at Shelly Munro's blog, Christine Rains is going to be hosting right here! I absolutely love when Christine Rains visits my blog. She is a pro at all things paranormal romance. So for her new release, The Dragonslayer, she has written a post especially for me and you. Check it out!

*****
MARKETING PARANORMAL ROMANCE
Paranormal romance readers are the most loyal and passionate fans. They attend more conventions, buy more merchandise, and write more fanfiction than fans of any other genre. Without a doubt, these are the fans you want, but that's no easy task.

The basics of marketing apply to all writers. (See five tips on M. Pax's blog today!) To get those amazing fans, you'll have to go that extra mile. Here are five suggestions on how to promote your paranormal romance book:

1. Submit your book to romance review sites like Bitten by Books and Smexy Books. This is a scary prospect. There's no guarantee they'll even review your story, but the advantages to receiving a good review should overpower your fears.

2. Book covers. Readers do judge books based on their covers. Make sure you have a professional cover, of course, but paranormal romance is about mystery, love, and something out of the ordinary. Look at the covers of your favorite books in this genre and see what sells. A supernatural creature, a mysterious symbol, or a hot woman and/or man. Or all of those things. Find out what works best for the tone of your story.

3. There are many book clubs and groups about certain paranormal creatures. You'll easily find many sites dedicated to vampires and werewolves. The Fae, demons, dragons, and even gods. Join the groups, start up discussions, and network.

4. When holding contests and bloghops, keep the mood of your paranormal romance. Is it really sexy? Give away your book with a gift certificate to Victoria's Secret. Is it about vampires? Give away your book with a cape or fake fangs.

5. Do something out of the ordinary. Visit haunted houses and post pictures on your blog or host a real life zombie walk. The readers are looking for something extraordinary. Give it to them in your book and through your promotions.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: never give up. You won't become an undead sensation overnight. Yet if you can nab the attention of these fantastic fans, you'll have a following for life.

*****
DESCRIPTION Title: 1303 – The Dragonslayer (The 13th Floor series, #3) Author: Christine RainsGenre: paranormal romanceRelease date: February 13th, 2013
On the rooftop of neighboring building, dragonslayer Xanthus Ehrensvard fires at his target, Governor Whittaker. How he missed the shot, he doesn't know, but fleeing the scene, he picks up an unwanted passenger. Gorgeous reporter Lois King saw Xan's face, and she believes it's the story to make her career. Except he can't let her walk away knowing what he looks like. Xan has to show her the Governor is a bigger threat to the world than he is.

Xan knows dragons never went extinct. They evolved with human society, taking on mortal forms, and slithered their way into positions of great influence and power, just like the Governor. But it's no easy chore proving to someone that dragons still exist, and even more so, they're disguised as famous people. Xan must convince Lois or find another way to silence her. An option, as he gets to know her, he likes less and less.

After all, dragonslayers are no longer celebrated heroes but outlaws. Just as the dragons wish it. But this outlaw must make a plan to slay the dragon or risk its retribution.

EXCERPT
1303 – The Dragonslayer
“We've been watching the gates for hours. Why don't we just drive up? I'll say I'm with the paper and you're my photographer. They can check me out. It'll be true, and they won't know who you are anyway.” Lois was surrounded by five empty Grande coffee cups, a can of half-eaten Pringles, and a bag of untouched grapes. The fruit was the stake-out snack he'd brought.

“I watched the Governor's estate for months trying to figure out the best way to get in. Security is tight and they always check everyone coming in thoroughly. No one gets in without an invitation, and since you weren't invited . . . .” Xan lifted his night vision binoculars and surveyed the grounds again. Nothing. Not even a squirrel.

“It's the middle of the night. The guard is probably sleeping in the booth.” Lois sighed, squirming in her seat.

“He's not sleeping. In four minutes, he'll come out and check the front gate as he has a cigarette. They run on a rigid schedule.” Xan checked his watch again and nodded once. There was no easy way to do it. He'd have to break in one way or another, and the dragon would know he's coming.

“Well, how about this? The guard comes out for his cigarette and a beautiful woman just happens by. She's a little tipsy and lost, someone stole her purse so she doesn't have her cell. She flashes some leg and asks to use his phone. He opens the gate and POW! You come out of nowhere and you're in.”

“You're not going in.” Xan stated in a hard tone. “I can do the same act. Without flashing some leg.”

Lois snorted as she laughed. “Yeah, right. Your acting skills suck. And besides, who would believe a big guy like you got his wallet stolen? Seriously, I've done stuff like this before. It's a piece of cake.”

She opened the door and was out before he could protest again. Xan growled and pushed his door, stepping out. He was ready to shove her back inside again, but peeked at his watch once more. Time was of the essence.

He rounded the car and laid a hand on the roof as he whispered to her. “You wait in the car. If you see anything going on in the house, call 911.”

“Isn't something supposed to be going on in the house?” Lois folded her arms.

“Yes, but if I'm able to do what I need to do, you won't be able to tell something's going on. If things start to go wrong, it'll get noisy.” To say the least. “My main objective is to find the girl and get her out.”

“And kill Whittaker.” She added with a hard look.

“I will kill him, but when we meet, it'll be messy. I want the girl out of there first.” Though that scenario would be ideal, Xan didn't believe he'd get in without the dragon's notice. It was the Governor's territory after all. The modern security system would be enough to deter anyone, but a dragon didn't need the technology. He would know when someone entered his lair.

“Okay. Alyssa first. And yes,” Lois groaned. “Once you bring the girl out, I'll take her to the police. Don't stop for anything. Alert the media too just in case the police are in Whittaker's pocket.”

Xan breathed out, forcing his overly tense muscles to relax. This just might work. The odds were stacked against him, but if he could manage to get in without sounding an alarm, he might be able to save the girl.

“Thank you.” He wanted to stuff Lois back in the car. Every bit of him screamed to keep her safe. This was no place to make a scene, though.

Lois grabbed him by the collar of his fireproof black jacket and yanked him to her. Her mouth mashed against his. Supple and hard, hot and desperate. There was a hint of caramel from her coffee on her lips to add a bit of sweetness to a kiss that was anything but. An electric tingling raced from his ears to his toes, and a rush of adrenaline that had nothing to do with the mission ahead.

He didn't realize he was kissing her back until she pulled away. Lois made a small sound, something between pleasure and frustration.

“Good. Now I'm flushed. I look much more drunk. It's been four minutes.” She ran her hands through her hair, but it only looked more tussled. She hitched up her skirt a few inches. Her long legs pale and gorgeous in the moonlight. “Good luck.”

Lois winked at him and wobbled down the sidewalk before he could gain enough sense to grab her. She crossed the road to pass the gate of Whittaker's estate and stumbled once. Not in front of the gate, but near it. Enough to make some noise so the guard came to the gate to peer out. He stood watching her as she walked toward him.

Damn tricky woman. There was no way he could stop her now without ruining everything. Fury coursed through him, but also a frustrating sense of admiration.

*****
AUTHOR BIOChristine Rains is a writer, blogger, and geek mom. She has four degrees which help nothing with motherhood, but make her a great Jeopardy player. When she's not writing or reading, she is having adventures with her son or watching cheesy movies on Syfy Channel. She's a member of S.C.I.F.I. The 13th Floor series is her first self-published series. She has four novellas and eighteen short stories published.

Find Christine here: Website . Blog . Facebook . Twitter . Goodreads

Find The Dragonslayer here:

Amazon . B&N . Smashwords . Kobo . GoodReads

Confundus Charm and Your Love of Tweeting

Have you heard aboutWriters 4 Writers?


Next Monday, on February 18th, I will be the monthly featured author on W4WS!
What is that, you ask?
Check it out.
It takes place the 3rd Monday of every month and is hosted by Steve Tremp, Mary Pax, Christine Rains and C.M. Brown.
Mission:


• Help writers bring awareness of their book(s) to tens of thousands of new people

• Help writers reach Amazon Top 100 in at least one category (i.e., suspense, free, whatever)

• Increase sales of their book(s) after the promo is over

• Drive new traffic to their blog and increase following

• Create verbal and viral buss.

The premise is brilliant and so simple. If you sign up on the linky list to be featured, everyone on the list will support you by tweeting and sharing on Facebook. That, along with the support from your followers serves to get you and your books in front of the masses.

So--if this Confundus Charm works *waves wand and casts spell* -- all you'll want to do next week is tweet and share about moi on Facebook beginning next Monday. I will provide/post the tweets/hashtags on Monday so all you have to do is copy/paste into your twitter box.

Here's my promotion plan:

Monday and Tuesday Givin' Up The Ghost ebook will be FREE on AmazonOn Monday I'll post tweets for you to copy/paste into your TwitterI'll post hashtags (i.e, #W4WS) that you can enter into your Twitter search box so that you can simply Retweet what's already there (this way you can just hit retweet on as many as you want at the same time). I'll run a GoodReads Giveaway of 2 autographed paperbacks with bookmarksI'll run a Rafflecopter Giveaway here and on Facebook with 2 autographed paperbacks with bookmarks - all you have to do to enter is Tweet or Retweet

If you want to be a featured author, you can sign up HERE.
And please "like" the W4WS Facebook page HERE.
Thanks for your support!I couldn't do this without you!

Champion in the Darkness

I'm thrilled to help Tyrean Martinson reveal the cover and release of her new book Champion in the Darkness. Amid some havoc and a bit of mayhem, she has persevered to share her book with the world. And so without further ado, here it is!

The Blurb:


Clara is younger than most trainees, but she is ready to hold a Sword Master's blade. While visions and ancient prophecies stand in her way, they also offer a destiny unlike any other. Clara is aided by a haunted mentor, Stelia, whose knowledge of their enemy Kalidess is both a bane and a blessing. As evil threatens their land, Clara and Stelia must find the strength to overcome the darkness.

Champion in the Darkness is YA Christian Fantasy, and is the first book in the Champion Trilogy.

      Author Bio:

Tyrean Martinson lives and writes in the Pacific Northwest, encouraged by her multi-talented husband and daughters. She likes to write, read, teach, ski, bicycle, walk, and sometimes she likes to sing and dance in the rain.

Using her degree in Secondary Education with an emphasis in English, Tyrean homeschools her two daughters and teaches writing and literature classes at a homeschool co-op.

Tyrean has been published in e-zines like Every Day Poets, Every Day Fiction and Mindflights, and a few print anthologies like The Best of Every Day Poets and Sunday Snaps: The Stories. Champion in the Darkness is her first book, but she plans to write many more.



Champion in the Darkness can be found at these links:

Amazon . Smashwords . Goodreads

Wacky Waddles is Here!

Today, I am so pleased to help Miranda Hardy and Rimi Rasheed to announce the release of their new picture book! It's a lovely little book about a baby duck's travel through the zoo where he meets all sorts of new animals and finally figures out what kind of animal he is. I was fortunate to read Wacky Waddles before publishing, because I formatted it! So now I'll turn the introduction over to Miranda and Rimi:

[image error] Please join Wacky Waddles on his journey through his new home. Wacky Waddles is a rhyming picture book for young readers written by Miranda Hardy and illustrated by Rimi Rasheed. Wacky Waddles is currently available in print and ebook versions on Amazon, as well as an ebook through Barnes & Noble. Publisher: Quixotic Publishing Pages: 26 Date of Publication: 02/05/13
Author Bio:
Miranda Hardy writes children's literature to keep the voices in her head appeased. When she's not in her fantasy world, she's canoeing in alligator infested waters or rescuing homeless animals. She resides in south Florida with her two wonderful children, and too many animals to mention. Blog | Facebook | Twitter Illustrator Bio:
Rimi Rasheed is a professional in primary education yet follows a passion in digital illustrating, and much of her work is focused on children. She is well known for her colourful creations of lovable characters, most of which can be found on her blog. She lives in Maldives with her husband and two children. Blog | Facebook | Twitter

IWSG: When is Make Believe Too Much?

It's the first Wednesday of the month, so you know what today is! It's Insecure Writers Support Group day! Thanks to our host Alex J. Cavanaugh and his helpers this month.

This is where we tell the world about our insecurities, and then bloghop around to our fellow writers blogs to lend support. You can sign up or see the list of participants HERE.

You may have noticed I've been MIA lately. That's because I've been working on a new project and my current insecurity, Second Death. It's a new novella series (An Indigo Eady Afterlife novella) off-shoot of my first series (Givin' Up The Ghost.) My protag, Indigo, is a teenage ghost whispering psychic who can see and speak to ghosts, which is instrumental in solving the murder of her friend's dad.

My new novella series was actually inspired by the second book in the series, A Guilty Ghost Surprised (not yet published). There is a scene where Indigo has a conversation with Franny, a Victorian ghost madam. Franny reveals to Indigo that there is a whole spirit community in Sabrina Shores (mostly Victorian) that basically is parallel to the living world. They have community meetings, court each other, and socialize as if they're still alive.

Second Death is...more fanciful, to say the least. It picks up from the conversation between Indigo and Franny about the overactive spirit community in Sabrina Shores and takes it a bit over the top. Indigo is basically drafted onto the Missing Paranormals Committee by a ghostly high court judge during court proceedings of the highly active spirit world. She must serve on the committee alongside other spirits.

The series will also introduce other such afterlife characters that have been mutated (my theme for the A-Z!)by what they had become in previous lives and other paranormal creatures and paranormal happenings. But I think it still encompasses the light paranormal characteristics of my first series.

So you see - Indigo becomes much more active in the spirit world, rather on the periphery. AND there are some pretty off the wall creatures.

I worry that it may be too over the top and wonder whether it will reflect on my original series in any way because I'm using some of the same characters.

What do you think?
Any thoughts on what's too much?
Will it reflect on my original series?

Do You Believe What You Write?

Before I welcome Jamie Ayres to my blog, I wanted to announce the winners to the Indies 4 Hire Event.
*Drum Rollllllll*
Mil Holmes - 25 page edit or novel formatted - from Gwen
Shelley Munro – 1 blog or FB Header - from Maria
Shelley Munro - 1 custom blog badge for tour event or bloghop - from Maria
LD Masterson - 50 page edit or novel formatted - from Gwen
Congratulations to the winners and thank you all so much for participating. The event was crazy-busy and a great success and you all helped to make it so!
*****
And now, another drum roll please!
Welcome Jamie Ayres! Jamies new release, 18 Things, is such an original and awesome concept. Check it out.


Writing Paranormal Novels




Do You Believe What You Write?
Writing the paranormal novel takes more than adding in a vampire or wizard . . . but whatever characters you do decide to cast, you have to make them believable!

Except, what if one of the ‘fantasy’ characters you write about actually exists?

In my YA contemporary paranormal love story, 18 Things, there’s a bit of inspiration behind the inspirational side of the novel.

When I was almost twelve years old, I was ready to commit suicide. You may find that hard to believe, but I’d already suffered many injustices by that age and was convinced that:

a) God wasn’t real –otherwise He wouldn’t let all those bad things happen to me

b) God was real, but He hated me

c) God was real, and He didn’t hate me, and He had a plan for my life

I really needed to discover the answer to my question before I made my decision, because I’d heard if you commited suicide you couldn’t go to Heaven. And of course I didn’t want to go to Hell.

So I prayed.

I didn’t even get on my knees.

I stared up at the ceiling before going to sleep that August night in 1991 and prayed in my head:

“Jesus, if you are real, I need you to show me a supernatural sign that you love me and have a plan for my life. If you do this, I promise I won’t commit suicide. I promise I will endure anything if you love me. Please show me a ghost tomorrow. If you don’t, I am commiting suicide and you can’t send me to Hell, okay? Because that means You didn’t hold up your end of the bargain.”

I went to bed honestly thinking I would end my life the next day. I’d already brainstromed a list of ways to do it and had the materials ready.

So, God knew I meant buisness.

The next morning, I opened my bedroom door to a man on his knees, his hands folded in prayer, with a smile on his face and looking up at me. He was wearing blue. But that’s not the most unusual thing about him.

I could see through him!
He was transparent!
We looked at each other for a few seconds before I shut my door, trembling in disbelief. Then I dropped to the floor, made the sign of the cross, and said another prayer.

“Dear Jesus, thank you for answering my prayer, and please don’t ever show me that again.”

When I opened my door, the “ghost” was gone. In his place was a peace in my heart I’d never known before. I didn’t speak to anyone about it for five years, and when I did, it was my now husband (who of course, teased me mercilessly). But that one ‘sign’ kept me from comitting suicide all through middle and high school.

Flash forward to another night in August of 1997 when I truly give my heart to Jesus. When I realize I survived all the atrocities in my life because God had a plan and purpose in mind. When I realized my ‘ghost’ was probably my guardian angel. When I realized that out of six billion people on earth, God cared so much about me, He heard the cries of a little girl and gave His angel the okay to answer my prayer.

The next year I married the man who mocked me for seeing my little blue man. But he still didn’t believe me. One day, while I had some free time inbetween my college classes at UCF, I browsed through Barnes & Noble (yeah, not much has changed, lol). I went to their religious section and flipped through a book on the power of angels. Immediately, I was drawn to a chapter on Guardian Angels. In it, the author quoted from the diaries of a German mystic who died in 1919. Her diaries are widely circulated because she described a visual relationship with many angels. From her writings:

“The Guardian Angels of children are exquisitely lovely.They are dressed in blue and always are seen with their hands folded in prayer.”
So, you tell me, do you believe in what you write?
About the Author:

Jamie Ayres writes young adult paranormal love stories by night and teaches very young adults as a public school teacher by day. When not at home on her laptop or at school, she can often be found at a local book store grabbing random children and reading to them. So far, she has not been arrested for this. She lives in southwest Florida with her prince charming, two children (sometimes three based on how Mr. Ayres is acting), and a basset hound. She spent her youthful summers in Grand Haven, Michigan and this setting provided the inspiration for her debut novel, 18 Things. She really does have grandmothers named Olga and Gay but unlike her heroine, she's thankfully not named after either one of them. She loves lazy pajama days, the first page of a good book, stupid funny movies, and sharing stories with fantastic people like you. Visit her website at http://www.jamieayres.com/



18 Things is available here:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
Add 18 Things to your TBR list!atGoodreads

Coming Out With A Partner

Hey all, today I'm with Angela Brown over at Writers Guide to E-publishing talking about partnering up for a joint book release and blog tour. It's not for everyone, and even so, ours was unique.

Here's a sneak peak from: Thinking About Partnering Up?: How the Partners in ParanormYA Did It....

How was this going to work? You have two people, two books, and touring together could make for one long blog tour post.

By the time we launched our tour, we knew each other’s characters and were able to write them all, like those writers on sitcoms. We had them interact with each other, wrote playful posts where they appeared on game shows and interacted with blog hosts. Of course we did some serious interviews, too. And people loved it!

We hope you can stop by!
*****
The Indies 4 Hire was a great success. Thank you all so much for participating and supporting me and Maria Zannini in our indie endeavors!

Pass Me The Bottle




Add your own caption.
Here's mine: Are you going to choke it or pass it?


*****
Thank God It's Friday, everyone!
It's been a great week and the end of the Indies 4 Hire event. We're still available for questions through the weekend - or whenever, you know where we live :)

The rafflecopter is still going through the weekend, so we'll announce the winners on Wednesday.

You can still enter HERE at Facebook

OR

HERE on my blog.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Pssst! Part Vamp - Wrap Your Neck Before Entering!

Today my blog is being taken over by Jasmine from the new novel by C.M. Brown, He Came For Mine. I haven't met Jazz yet, so I'm just gonna wrap up my neck real good and tight because you never know - I mean, *whispers* I heard she was part vamp...

Welcome, Jazz - Take it away!


Hi, I’m Jasmine, Jazz for short and C.M. has asked me to write a post about myself for Gwen Gardner, but firstly I would like to thank Gwen for having me here today – Thanks Gwen, I know Carolyn really appreciates it.

Well, in The Protector Series, I am the female MC… The Chosen One, which means every vampire from every dimension, and I am learning there are quite a few, wants a piece of me!

I started off naïve, unaware that vampires even existed, but because one of my ancient relatives fell in love with a vampire from Aidensdein and remarkably produced a child through the relationship, I have been destined to be the most sought after human alive. Just my luck!

I would never have known any of this had I not met Seb and fallen in love with him at first sight, as corny as that sounds, it’s the way this story starts. Sebastian and I seem to be made for each other and I don’t think another guy would ever take his place, although some do try.

I live in the same area C.M. lives in, the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia and she describes the beautiful beaches and mountain areas in book one, He Came For Me. I like to surf and have an interest in photo journalism, so living in this area suits my lifestyle. As the series proceeds, I develop an interest in martial arts and weapons and become quite strong as my character develops.

But with the number of vampires after my blood, I am always in some dilemma and my knight in shining armour, my Protector, Seb, is always there to save me….

I wonder what would happen if one day he didn’t make it in time?

Well, I hope you found my short post interesting. Find out more about my relationship with Seb and my adventures by reading The Protector Series and thanks again Gwen for having me here today.

Jazz

**********************


BLURB: He Came For Mine, Book Two in 'The Protector Series'

Fending for herself for almost two years,
Jazz worries she will never see Sebastian again.
A new man enters her life, but he holds a secret.

Will Jazz trust him?
~~~~
Sebastian discovers an ancient ritual which must be performed
on the Chosen One's son before his first birthday, or he will die.

He returns to Earth to find Jazz in the arms of another man.

A man he knows very well.

A man he does not trust....

********************C.M. Brown profile: A long-time lover of Fantasy Novels I have decided to put pen to paper and create my own. Many years spent helping high school students write their assignments from years 8 to 12, has given me the experience to forge ahead with this dream! I live on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia and have shared some of the wonders of this area with you in this book. I am married with two teenage children, one studying at University the other in the senior years of High School. I enjoy reading and writing and spending time relaxing on the beautiful beaches I live near, walking my dog and swimming.********************Connect with C.M. here:SMASHWORDS . BARNES AND NOBLE . SONY . KOBO . AMAZON . GOODREADS