Jo Robinson's Blog, page 50

The Sunday Show – Defining Moments with Author Viv Drewa AKA The Owl Lady

jorobinson176:

Sally has one of our favourite bloggers on her Sunday Show today – the wonderfully supportive Viv Drewa. Lovely to find out more about Viv.

Originally posted on Smorgasbord - Variety is the spice of life:

I usually spend a couple of weeks popping in and out of my future guest���s blogs and also previous interviews and stories that have been published on the web. What I did find about my guest today confirmed that everyone���s opinion mirrors my own, which is that she is an extremely kind and generous person. You will also find that she is a very modest person and it was a pleasure getting to know her a little bit more.

My guest today is Viv Drewa, an author and blogger with two sites, both of which she uses to promote other writer���s posts and books. She has kindly reblogged many of my posts and I am sure your articles too over the last year and I am certainly very grateful for that.

The Author

��

Viv Drewa originates from Michigan and I have managed to glean a few gems about her���

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#Read about PnP #Authors #Promotions

Originally posted on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog..... An Author Promotions Enterprise!:

PnP Authors began as a source to promote their own books, Peter & Pattimari Cacciolfi state proudly, but its members of notable authors and poets grew so fast that they renamed it, PnP Authors Promotions, and began promoting other authors who joined PnP; FREE. Pattimari began putting together spotlights for the author���s book, and sent them all around the world by having their authors support them by clicking on websites at the end of their spotlighted promotions, sending them into thousands of homes.

PnPAuthors

PnPAuthors Promotions

Peter & Pattimari began brain storming with their Administrator, Harmony Brooks and they soon came up with PnP Authors Promotional Magazine where they talk about authors, poets, artists and their writings and works; another way of promoting authors��� books.

PnPAuthors Promotional Magazine

___________________________________________

Peter & Pattimari believe that authors have something to say, and they believe in them, so they promote them���

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My #Alzheimers’ drama TIME TO LET GO is free today!

Originally posted on writerchristophfischer:

The subject of Alzheimer���s is very close to my heart right now and so I decided to use up all of my remaining free promotion days in KDP and give the book away between February 1 ��� 4 to spread the message of hope and to raise awareness. Enjoy and Thank You for your support!��

Time To Let Go:

Time to Let Go is a contemporary family drama set in Britain.
Following a traumatic incident at work Stewardess Hanna Korhonen decides to take time off work and leaves her home in London to spend quality time with her elderly parents in rural England. There she finds that neither can she run away from her problems, nor does her family provide the easy getaway place that she has hoped for. Her mother suffers from Alzheimer���s disease and, while being confronted with the consequences of her issues at work, she and her���

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Dog Bone Soup by Bette A. Stevens – Book Launch Tour

DOG BONE SOUP is not only the title of Bette A. Stevens���s debut novel; it ranks high among the paltry meals that the book���s protagonist, Shawn Daniels, wants to forget. Plodding through mounting snow and battling howling winds, Shawn is ready to leave it all behind���living in poverty, Dad���s drinking, life in foster care, the divorce, the bullies���.

Travel with Shawn Daniels through the guts and the glories of life. You���ll find them all in DOG BONE SOUP, a Boomer���s coming-of-age saga. Available now at “YOUR AMAZON”

From the Reviewers

���Dog Bone Soup is the poignant tale of a dysfunctional family struggling to survive in America in the 50s and 60s, when most others were on the crest of a wave. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry. But most of all it will make you glad you read it.��� ~ Charlie Bray, founder of the Indietribe

���In Dog Bone Soup, Bette Stevens captures the feeling and images of growing up in hardscrabble times perfectly.��� ~ John Clark, librarian and author

DOG BONE SOUP
READ the opening Excerpt from Chapter One right here…

The postcard arrived four days before my eighteenth birthday. All I had to do now was sign the final papers and light out for basic training. I could hardly wait to leave this place behind.

There were six of us ready to become soldiers. The other five guys were headed to Fort Dix. Soon as we were inducted, the sergeant who swore us in started calling us a bunch of lily-assed bastards and worse. When the jerk marched the other five guys off, I was happy as hell I wasn���t one of them.

Lieutenant Richards called me into his office. ���You���ll be heading out tomorrow, Private Daniels. Here are your tickets.���

We sat in his office and talked about my future with the U.S. Army. Then he handed me a schedule for the next day���s journey and we went over every detail.

���Now let���s get you home so you can get a good night���s sleep before you fly off to serve Uncle Sam, soldier.���

���Good luck Private,��� the lieutenant said when he dropped me off at the house. We saluted and I stood there watching until his car disappeared over the hill.

I���d always liked army people. They called me Mr. Daniels and even sir sometimes. Now I was officially a private in the U.S. Army and I was ready to start a new life. I pictured myself in an officer���s uniform one day���a lieutenant, a captain, maybe even a general.

Mum and I didn���t get much more than a few winks of sleep that night. I don���t know how many pots of coffee she perked while we sat at the kitchen table and talked the night away. Of course, it was Mum did most of the talking. Once she opened her picture books, I felt like I was drinking in the life I wanted to leave.

Mum took all of those pictures with her Brownie���that camera was her pride and joy. None of us kids was allowed to touch it unless she supervised a picture taking every now and then. If Dad wasn���t around, it was me peeking through the lens. Mum was fussy about taking pictures just so.

Five books were piled on the table and we went through them one page at a time. Mum had a story for every snap shot. Some made me laugh so hard that I doubled over.

It was two minutes shy of three when she closed the last album.

���Thanks for staying up. I���ve got the alarm set for six and I know that won���t give us much sleep.��� Mum pulled out her hanky, sniffled and hugged me before we turned in. My leaving would to be hard on her.

Willie was snoring away, likely dreaming about cars. I slipped in next to him and pulled away some puffs and huddled under them.

The minute I closed my eyes I started dreaming about my new life. No more freezing to death up north. I was headed for southern sunshine and I saw myself soaking it all in.

Bzzzzzzz. I jumped out of bed, threw on my clothes, grabbed the suitcase and headed for the kitchen. Mum already had breakfast on the stove, so I ran outside to do my business and came back in to grab a hot biscuit and down it with a cup of steaming coffee.

I was half frozen and snow was whipping around me in circles when I headed out on the three-mile walk into town to catch that bus.

I shook flakes big as quarters from my jacket when I climbed the steps of the Greyhound. Two hours and I���d be boarding a plane headed to Fort Jackson. South Carolina was sure the place to be, especially in February.

### end of excerpt

Read all of Chapter One
OR Grab your own copy of DOG BONE SOUP here at “YOUR AMAZON” and dive right in!

About the author

Inspired by nature and human nature, author Bette A. Stevens is a retired elementary and middle school teacher, a wife, mother of two and grandmother of five. Stevens lives in Central Maine with her husband on their 37-acre farmstead where she enjoys writing, gardening, walking and reveling in the beauty of nature. She advocates for children and families, for childhood literacy and for the conservation of monarch butterflies (milkweed is the only plant that monarch caterpillars will eat).

Bette A. Stevens is the author of award-winning picture book AMAZING MATILDA; home/school resource, The Tangram Zoo and Word Puzzles Too!; and PURE TRASH, the short story prequel to DOG BONE SOUP.

Find out more about the author and her books right here on “YOUR AMAZON”

Bette���s WEBSITE/BLOG
Find Bette on FACEBOOK
Follow Bette on TWITTER
Author Bette A. Stevens at “YOUR AMAZON”

Patience and Integrity-The Secret to Success

Originally posted on :

Author Integrity. This week on Lit World Interviews seems to be all about that. Whether you are an Indie or Traditionalist Author there are things we all should be doing. These days there really is only one difference between the two types of Authors and that���s who puts out your books. Some say the Publisher will do a lot more for you so you don���t have to, but that���s not always the case and it costs you.

Don���t get me wrong, I am not against signing with a Publisher. I want to sign with one someday. But I do know that to be successful you need to be all in your own business and not simply sit back and let everyone else be all up in it.

This week you���ve seen a relatively new way of editing from Author PS Bartlett with her article Text to Speech: Editing Through Listening

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Making Your Own Ebook ��� Part Nine ��� Making a fresh start

Originally posted on Smorgasbord - Variety is the spice of life:

Sometimes the only way to remove the formatting from an existing file is to make a fresh start by stripping out all existing formats, completely, and start the formatting again. But you want to do this in a way that does not disturb the text of the book and also is as fast as possible. In this post we will look at the detailed processes that you can use to do just that. The best approach is to read through the post completely then you will be in a position to decide which of the options will work best for YOUR book.

To make a ���fresh��� start you will want to mark all instances of formatting ��� Bold, Italics, Bold Italic, Headings of all kinds, indents, etc. so that when you transfer the plain text file back into Word you will be able to find all the instances���

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Authenticity and Honesty as an Indie Author

Originally posted on :

A couple of things we shouldn���t be doing. Sometimes you���ll see an author comparing their writing to a famous writer in the actual blurb of their book, or worse still on the cover. Doing this in a blurb is actually against Amazon policy, so it���s not a good idea to begin with. Some Indies seem to think that by the mere presence of a bestselling author���s name, readers will be more inclined to buy their own book. Speaking as a reader all I can say about that is that if I want to read a book by J K Rowling I���ll buy one of her books. If a reader or reviewer on the other hand compares a book to the work of a famous author I���m a fan of, I might be tempted to buy it ��� that to me is a genuine compliment, but if it���s the author making���

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Mrs Brown’s Boys

jorobinson176:

MAN this is funny! :D :D :D ��A bit rude too, so if you’re easily offended…..

Originally posted on Have We Had Help?:

I thought you could all do with cheering up.

For years now when it comes to good old fashioned non PC belly laugh humour, shown between 7 ��� 9pm, the UK television channels have been sadly lacking. The same goes for full on variety shows like Sunday Night at the Palladium. These days what���s on offer most days of the week, and especially during the weekend, is mainly repeats of repeats, usually by the program in question being shown as ���new��� on a different channel.

Who do they think they���re kidding?

At long last, once again there is a totally non PC, classic old fashioned comedy show called Mrs Brown���s Boys. Mrs Brown is written, produced, directed and played by the brilliant Irish comedian Brendan O���Carroll. Most of the cast are actually members of his family. When it first appeared on our screens, the stuffed shirts at the BBC hoped���

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The Man Behind The Mask

Originally posted on Let Me Reach with Kim Saeed:

by ~ Robin

I remember that night

When he first caught my eye

He had a penetrating gaze���

Never looked away as he walked by.

He made me feel special

Said all the things I longed to hear

At the time I was so lonely

And he always kept me near.

After a while

He stopped answering his phone

I never knew the reason

Why I was suddenly alone.

He was in a bad mood he���d say

And didn���t want me to suffer

I guess I���d miss the red flags

Because they smelled like flowers.

He asked me to marry him

The ring was flashy and impressive

I thought he must really love me

To go through that much effort.

Six months passed

And he was drifting away

It was me, he said

I���d gained too much weight.

He was leaving me for her
And showed no remorse, not a���

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Making Your Own Ebook Part Eight ��� How to clean the formatting in your Word file

jorobinson176:

Formatting from the Ebook Doctor.

Originally posted on Smorgasbord - Variety is the spice of life:

Now that you know how set up a clean template for your Ebook how do you apply it?

If you have NOT written your story

This is the easiest situation to handle and it just takes a little preparation to make things work really well. The sequence is straightforward.

Create a new document for the book. This makes sure that there are no Manual Styles already in place. If you are using existing document the best approach before adding Styles is to clear all previous Manual Styles before you begin but it is generally easier to start with
Create the framework for the book as described in the previous posts���
��� Or use the template you created in the earlier exercises
Start writing���


If you have already written your story���

If you have already written your story then the word-processor file will probably be full of formatting, some of it���

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