C.D. Hersh's Blog, page 45
December 26, 2022
Tell Again Tuesday 2023 Promo Ideas
The Calendar Lover’s Guide to Clever Book Promo Ideas in 2023By Penny Sansevieri
Coming up with book promo ideas can be challenging because it’s hard to really know what your readers are looking for.
Sure, they’re looking for great books, but there are a lot of great books out there, so how do you come up with book promo ideas that will help you stand out from the crowd, that will make your work seem relevant and exciting?
There’s a saying in marketing, “It’s easier to . . .
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December 22, 2022
Friday Features Christmas Wishes
December 20, 2022
Wednesday Special Spotlight Cookbook for Men
Here is a little to introduce you to this hot new cookbook that’s perfect for the King of the Kitchen and the New Guy in the Room.
Hey guys, ready to tie one on? An apron, that is…
Got a hot date? Or a special someone you want to take the next step—into your kitchen? Spoil your sweetheart with a meal to dream about. And make it even more special by preparing it yourself—or together!
Over 130 mouthwatering recipes to try, from soups, salads, and grilling, to main dishes and sides. Dessert is up to you – if you have room!
Cuisines to satisfy any craving, from comfort food to looks-fancy-but-easy-as-pie delights. Raid your own pantry and get fresh (ingredients) at the grocery.
Prep can be done in advance, but why rush? Make the prep part of the fun with your honey! (Matching aprons optional. Clothing is recommended, especially for sautéing!)
Menu suggestions provided or get adventurous and create your own unique meal—and a memory to savor.
Wine and beverage selections make you an instant pairing expert.
Bonus: Tips/tricks that will make everyone think you’re a kitchen genius.
Extra bonus: Sloane’s secret recipe for Super Bowl Chili!
All recipes are indexed so you can find what you need in a snap.
And come on, who doesn’t like sausage? (For breakfast! What were you thinking?)
Lunch, dinner—or breakfast the next morning, Sloane has you covered! Because a steamy date night always starts in the kitchen.
Get the cookbook on Amazon.
Sloane Taylor is an Award-Winning romance author with a passion that consumes her day and night. She is an avid cook and posts new recipes on her blog every Wednesday. The recipes are user friendly, meaning easy.
To learn more about Taylor go to her website. Stay in touch on Blogger, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Taylor’s cookbooks, Date Night Dinners, Date Night Dinners Italian Style, Sizzling Summer, and Recipes to Create Holidays Extraordinaire are released by Toque & Dagger Publishing and available on Amazon.
December 19, 2022
Tell Again Tuesday Who’s Advice do you follow?
All the Writing Advice You’ll Ever NeedBy Jim Dempsey
It seems obvious that writers would write about writing. Elizabeth Gilbert, Patricia Highsmith, Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, Annie Dillard are among the many well known authors who have written about writing. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott is my personal favorite. They seem to take that old adage of “write what you know” quite literally (more on that later).
I see it as a sign of generosity; people who have achieved a level of success sharing their knowledge in that hope that it helps someone else.
And we’ve all sign snippets of their advice in our social media feeds. That profound sounding sentence or two (sometimes taken out of context), pasted onto an attractive background and dispensed into the world for others to make of it what they will.
I’ve done it. My favorite is from Mark Twain: . . .
For the rest of the blog go to:December 15, 2022
Friday Feature Passwords
Our lives have come down to passwords. If you can’t remember them you can’t get into any of your social media applications. You can’t pay your bills or access your email and in some cases your smart phone.
Google “passwords” and you get 41M plus hits that encompass anything from password managers to safes to recovery programs and generators. Passwords are big business and if you don’t have them, as mentioned above, you have problems.
Protection has always been of importance even to the early cave dwellers. If your cave wasn’t high up a cliff anyone could just walk in and take the meat you had killed the day before. As time progressed man became smarter about keeping things safe. Today to keep things safe we have whole home systems that monitor 24/7. However, that still doesn’t cover the ones you need when you want to tweet or get money out of the ATM.
One solution is to spend big bucks for a password generator and then have a password keeper to store the various passwords you have to maintain. Here is a simple password generator and keeper that only costs a dollar per password.
You say that can’t be.
Pull out a George Washington from your purse or wallet. Take a close look at the bill. You can use any denomination but to keep costs down George is the one to go with. Notice the ten digit serial number? That’s the password generator.
There are two ways to use this generator. One is to use the numbers printed on the bill. Which might not be as secure as the method we’ll explain next. Of course, with systems today you have to use more than numbers and sometimes even special characters. We’ll get to those in a minute.
To generate the letters from the serial number start with the first letter of the serial number. If the next number is an even number, move forward in the alphabet that many letters and use it as a capital. If the number is odd move backwards and use it as lower case. When the number is zero use the same letter, you just used only different case. Do this for each successive number and you will have a string of randomized letters, ten characters long.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
For example, if the serial number on your bill is K94785309C you come up with the ten characters as KbFyGbyYpC. When you get to A or Z you continue at the beginning or end to continue your count. Your random password is now generated.
If you need special characters, they usually include the @, #, $ or &. Insert them in order between the upper and lower case letters. Thus, the fourteen-character password we have now generated is K@b#F$y&GbyYpC.
If the serial number is E54522034B then you get E@z#D$y&ACCzDB. Once the special characters are used, don’t repeat them again in that password. Mix in other special characters that are allowed, as you desire.
What about the password keeper you ask? That’s the dollar bill you used to generate the password. Use a post-it-note to put the name of the social media or other account name on the bill. Put it in a second wallet in a secure place until it is time to update your password on that account. That dollar is not spendable for you and is why this all costs a dollar per account.
Of course, once you have all your account passwords set up, the next time you update your password is free as you change the dollars out. Hope this is helpful to you.
Let us know if this works for you or you have another idea in the comments below.
Now, if your passwords are up-to-date, settle into a comfy chair and check out some of our books on our book page, under the menu at the top of the page or on our Amazon Author Page
December 13, 2022
Wednesday Special Spotlight New Book Released
Here is a peek at the book.
The only way to save their future is risk a journey back to her past.
Time is running out. The message rings in Abby Coleman’s head as clear as the chime of the grandfather clock, her time portal on Amelia Island. Her instincts scream that she must move. Act. But where? And why?
Through she leaped forward a century in time to live an independent life, she reluctantly admits she needs Alex, the insufferable thorn in her side who had the audacity to make her hope. Dream. Yearn.
Alex is through waiting for Abby to come to her senses. And to his complete surprise, the maddening, beautiful woman admits she loves him. Yet to his everlasting frustration, she refuses to marry until she solves her mystery.
In a blinding flash of light, the portal spits out a desperate, heavily pregnant Nika, and the reason becomes all too clear. With Abby missing from her own time, Eli stands accused of her murder. The only way to clear his name is for Abby to go where Alex can’t follow—back through the portal. And one passionate night together may be all they’ll ever have.
Get your copy today on Amazon.
Stella May is the penname for Marina Sardarova who has a fascinating history you should read on her website.
Stella writes fantasy romance as well as time travel romance. She is the author of ‘Till Time Do Us Part, Book 1 in her Upon a Time series, and the stand-alone book Rhapsody in Dreams. Love and family are two cornerstones of her stories and life. Stella’s books are available in e-book and paperback through all major vendors.
When not writing, Stella enjoys classical music, reading, and long walks along the ocean with her husband. She lives in Jacksonville, Florida with her husband Leo of 25 years and their son George. They are her two best friends and are all partners in their family business.
Follow Stella on her website and blog. Stay connected on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
December 12, 2022
Tell Again Tuesday Writer Be Prepared
Writing Tools: Keep Them Handy!By Susan Hanniford Crowley
Being a writer is more than pounding the computer every day and trying to think up great stuff. For one thing, amazing stuff happens all around us. Some of it, I admit is very loud. Some are so subtle so quiet, that it’s easy to miss. Sometimes a great story falls in your lap.
The Girl Guides (known as Girl Scouts in the US and some other countries) and the Boy Scouts have the slogan: Be Prepared.
That should be the slogan of every writer. Be prepared with . . .
For the rest of the blog go to:December 8, 2022
Friday Feature Gift for the wife
This is for all the guys out there who have to figure out what to get the wife for that “special” day or for Christmas. Of course you have to remember that “special” day first with enough advance notice to be able to even worry about the gift. If you only remember the day as you are coming home from work then stopping at the flower shop is the only recourse, with possibly a box of candy. Candy only if she is not trying to lose weight so you need to pay attention, but that’s best to do all the time.
Remembering the “special” day has become much easier since we all carry smart phones. Just load the list of “special” days in with a reminder of that day a week in advance. That should give you plenty of time to start paying attention to get that special gift. Of course just paying attention you also have to understand what the hints are or you could end up like the guy in the old joke that said:
“I don’t know what to buy my wife anymore. First she wanted a mink, so I got her one. Then she wanted a silver fox, so I got her one. She still isn’t happy, and now the house if full of animals.”
Yes, you had better understand what the hints are saying.
When writing a story you can always insert a little fun between the hero and heroine with him forgetting a “special” day, especially when he doesn’t even think of that type of thing like the one week, one month anniversary of whatever is special to the heroine. This type of faux pas can give a little levity to some of your conflict between the hero and heroine without it always having to be about life and death. Mixing a little humor into a story can make the characters seem real to the reader.
While not about forgetting a “special” day this excerpt from book one in our Turning Stone Chronicles series has a little fun between the hero and heroine.
No one knew what Rhys Temple liked better than Alexi Jordan. That’s what made them such good partners. That same intimacy would also make them great lovers, a thought that had crossed her mind many times.
Alexi retrieved Rhys’ birthday cake from the back seat of her car. The privilege of baking this momentous-occasion pastry had almost brought her to blows with the rest of the females in the precinct office. She scooped up his birthday gift and then dropped it as the cake box slid down her arm. A quick slap on the clear plastic lid stopped the perilous drop, but squished the yellow roses she’d so carefully crafted onto the German Chocolate cake.
She examined the decorations. Rhys’ name, age, and birthday salutation were intact. She sighed. “So much for presentation.”
A deep chuckle sounded behind her. “Need some help?”
“Hey, birthday boy.” Alexi motioned toward Rhys. “Get your gift.”
His eyebrows rose, and a seductive grin eased across his face as his arm circled Alexi’s waist.
Electricity shot through her causing her to shudder. “Not me.” At least, not for now. “The box. In the car.”
“Oh, that gift.” He released her, his hand trailing across her back.
She jabbed at him with her elbow.
He shrugged, his grin playful. “You can’t blame a guy for trying.”
He’d been “trying” for some time now. It was starting to get to her, but there was no way she could afford to give in. Too many things stood in the way.
As he maneuvered his tall body in front of her, his taut abdomen brushed against her in a way she felt was purposely seductive. Old Spice cologne mixed with a manly scent, uniquely Rhys, drifted past her. She loved the way he smelled.
She backed away. He made concentrating difficult. So much that in the year and a half they’d worked homicide, she’d often been tempted to ask for another partner. But the thought of not spending most days with him always changed her mind.
Have you read a story where something has been inserted about a “special” day being missed or used humor about a special day that made the characters seem genuine?
After you check your calendar for those “special” days, settle into a comfy chair and check out our books on our book page, under the menu at the top of the page or on our Amazon Author Page
December 6, 2022
Wednesday Special Spotlight Drink for the Holidays
Busy shopping, wrapping and socializing?
Ready for some rest and relaxation, but need to get going again soon?
Kick back with a festive cocktail!
Recipe by CD Hersh:
For each 8-ounce champagne glass you will need:
1/4 cup brewed Hibiscus Watermelon tea (we use Republic of Tea brand)1/8 cup brewed Chamomile honey and vanilla tea (we use Twinings brand)
Sparking apple cider
1 rounded TBS jellied cranberry sauce (smooth or whole berry)
Fresh fruits (grapes, whole cranberries, pineapple chunks, peeled sliced star fruit, or peeled kiwi—or fruits of your choice)
Short skewer or sizzle stick
Directions:
Thread fruits on a skewer or swizzle stick and set aside.Place teas and cranberry sauce in the glass. Mix until sauce is dissolved. Fill glass with sparkling apple cider. Enjoy!
Mock Champagne by the glass (original recipe by C.D. Hersh)
In an 8-ounce champagne flute, place ¼ cup white grape juice and 1/8 cup Chamomile tea. Fill glass with regular or diet ginger ale. To give the drink a holiday flare, add a slice of star fruit and a couple of whole, fresh cranberries to the glass before adding the liquids.Now kick back, relax with your drink and pick up a good book to read. You might even try one of ours that you can find over on our book page, under the menu at the top of the page or on our Amazon Author Page
ENJOY!
December 5, 2022
Tell Again Tuesday Persistence
The Second Most Important ThingBy Greer Macallister
In talking with other writers, especially those early in their journey, I’ve often said that talent isn’t the most important thing. Talent, for the most part, is not actually what gets you published. Talent is great, don’t get me wrong, and your journey toward holding your published book in your hands will be easier if you have some. But plenty of talented writers write a great book and then, poof, it goes nowhere. They don’t succeed, and they quit.
I’m sure you see where this is going. The quitting is the problem. Far more important than talent is persistence.
So persistence is . . .
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