D.G. Kaye's Blog, page 186

That Part Where

http://thatpartwhere.com/conflicted-hearts-by-d-g-kaye/

 

I have written about a wonderful site for authors to promote their books before called ThatPartWhere. This site is a great advertising tool and relatively inexpensive. For ten dollars they will post a full page ad for one day on their site as well as on Facebook and it will be tweeted throughout the day. Also once the ad day has passed your ad will remain on their site indefinitely in their catalogue for anyone to peruse. You submit a scene or a chapter from your book and a description of the scene and they look after the rest!

If you click the above link, you will see what an ad can look like by having a look at my ad.

My First Book Review!

My book Conflicted Hearts has been live now for 2 days! I am so excited to share a 5 Star Review that was posted today. Wow I thought, someone already had bought and read it! I know I have a long way to go in this business, but it has certainly been one busy year.

As I am still working hard on my marketing and social platform, I am gratefully back to dedicating more time back to my second book (the title is a secret). I’d like to share with you now my first review below:

Most helpful customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars What a great find! Dec 19 2013

By Karen B

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Yesterday I happened to come across this book and I am so glad that I did. It made me laugh, it made me sad, it made me angry but most of all, it made me cheer for D.G. Kaye! She writes with candor and insight, passion and heart. It is an easy comfortable read, much like having a conversation and I couldnt put the book down until the conversation was over. You can feel the little girl’s worry and confusion, the teenager’s guilt and angst, the sadness and the searching of the young woman and finally the strength of the adult. Ms. Kaye writes about the effects her mother’s actions has had on her entire life and the decisions she has made but she is never mean spirited about it and it makes you love her more.

It is a book that makes you think, reflect, understand and most of all it is a book that shows you that with the right attitude and beliefs you can forgive and move forward. I loved it!

ISBN Numbers in Canada

A little note on my blip with retrieving my ISBN numbers as I was getting ready to format my book, Conflicted Hearts.

It was Sunday. Sunday November 10, to be exact. Why do I remember this exactly? Because I was in the final stages of putting everything together for my book to be formatted, and of course that included plugging in the ISBN numbers on the copyright page.

I had already received my block of numbers from Government of Canada months before in preparation for my book. All I had to do was sign in to the government site and pull them out and fill in the required information pertaining to my book for it’s use. But I couldn’t get in! It wouldn’t accept my password and I was freaking out. That meant I couldn’t even call them until Wednesday! Monday was a holiday, Tuesday I had doctor appointments all day. It was frustrating looking at my beloved book numbers but unable to have them. I also needed to speak with the Library of Archives department because the rules were a bit misleading as to how I was supposed to send them a copy of my book after publication.

When I  was finally able to call, I reached a nice lady named Rachel. I explained the difficulty I was having obtaining my numbers and she was a great help with the process. In fact, we chatted a bit about my book and then I proceeded to ask her about my quandary on the LAC issue. She then told me that was a different department and she would connect me.

When I finally was able to call, I received an automated message asking to leave my name and phone number for someone to get back to me. Really?, I thought, as though I was calling some little business with an answering machine, not the government. I waited hours, no call back. I called back again, left another message, still no call back. I called back my ‘new friend’ Rachel and asked why nobody is calling back and she proceeded to inform me that they are minimally staffed and there was only ONE person in each department! I told her I just wanted to know the protocol for what I was legally to do with them to submit my book. I wasn’t sure how many formats they required or which formats. She then said, ‘Let me see what I can do for you, I will email them.’

A few minutes later a lovely lady named Patricia called me. I told her my concerns and she was lovely and guided me through the process and apologized for delays.  Here is what I learned:

Library of Archives and ISBN offices are in Montreal, Quebec.

Gratefully, the site navigation is about to be reconstructed for easier and updated navigation.

If you are formatting in both Mobi and Epub, only a copy of the Epub is required for them to have a copy in the archives. Patricia was kind enough to send me a direct link to forward this after I am published. She was also kind enough to give me her email address if I encountered more problems.

If you are publishing in POD, no printed copy is required to be sent in (that was one of the tricky grey areas on the website). Because POD is printed as ordered it is not necessary to submit a printed copy.

There is also an indication on the website that when submitting in ebook format, only so many megabites can be submitted at a time (grueling). I was informed that this has been changed, although it is not yet stated. I will be finding this little surprise out shortly after I publish and I will be sure to follow up here if I encounter said glitches.

I’d also like to say, I am grateful that for Canadian authors, our ISBN numbers are FREE!

Here is the email I received after our conversation, with the link attached to submit your ebook for archiving, after publication. I hope this helps some of my fellow Canadian authors.

Hello Deborah:

 

Thank you for contacting us today.

 

Here is the link to the site where you can upload your e-book.  As part of the process, you will register to receive a login and password, then you can upload you book.

 

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/electroniccollection/003008-220-e.html

 

Even though your file may be slightly larger than 200 MB try it anyway.  I would also recommend that you “zip” the file to compress it.

Well, I don’t believe my file is THAT big but they have certainly added some MB’s! So now that I have published (yay) I must download a copy for LAC within a week of publishing. Good luck to all you future authors.

 

If you run into any difficulties or need further information,  I’m happy to help.

 

Best Regards,

 

Patricia

 

Blogger Appreciation

Thank you my friend  Ajaytao  for bestowing these lovely blogger awards onto me. It is an honour to be considered by you,

Thank you my friend Ajaytao for bestowing these lovely ...

Thank you my friend  Ajaytao  for bestowing these lovely blogger awards onto me. It is an honour to be considered by you,

Conflicted Hearts Has Arrived!

Hello people!  This is just a quick post to let you all know that I am happy to share with you the birth of my book, Conflicted Hearts. As I have been wearing many hats these past two days I am still working on finishing touches with links on different pages and social media to update.  Please bear with me for today as I get things going and feel free to drop by my Facebook page to say hello as I had announced on a Goodreads event the launch of my book and to drop by and say hello there.

My Conflicted Hearts book page should be all up and running this morning. Thanks for all of your well wishes and support and hope to see you all circle by my facebook author page. In the meantime, here is the link to my amazon page which will be embedded on this page shortly. Please pass by the page and have a look inside the book!

Announcing the coming of Conflicted Hearts!

 

 

Hi everyone! I just wanted to inform you all that my book Conflicted Hearts will be live on Amazon.com on Wednesday, December 18th.  After many delays and perseverance, I am finally able to share my book in the wonderful world of books. It will be available in ebook and paper.

I want to take this opportunity to once again thank you all for your support in my endeavor; your lovely comments, your encouragement and praises. I will be adding the link to the book late tomorrow and after that you may go take a peek at the sample chapters which Amazon will include as a preview.  I am also running an announcement event with Goodreads and I will be on my facebook author page during those days if anyone would like to ask any questions.

Again, thank you for all of your continued support!

There’s something about Mary

I wanted to write a post about a dear friend of mine, Mary. Mary is a breath of fresh air, Mary is sunshine.

Mary and I met on a cruise ship four years ago. I actually met her husband first, while playing poker together on the ship, but it was Mary, his wife, that I took a shining to. Mary is the type of person who’d never hurt a fly and she’d give you the shirt off her back (also because she probably wouldn’t miss it anyway due to her shopaholic tendencies). If one didn’t know Mary well, one may take her as quiet and shy and you would never know how very intelligent and educated she is. Make no mistake – Mary is sharp as a tack and when she feels comfortable enough to let you in to her wisdoms, you’re in for life.

Mary is one of my funniest friends; only she doesn’t know how funny she is. Her stories come out so matter -of -fact, that she doesn’t realize how humorous some of the things she says or does really are.

Mary has the ears for everyone and the compassion for every living soul and animal. She lives in New York, while I’m here in Toronto. But that doesn’t put a dent in our friendship. In fact, Mary has shared in the following of my journey on writing my book, like no other. Her feedback and encouragement have brought me back from some dark moments and doubts along the way.

I’d like to share something typical of Mary to come out with, something comical, and until I burst out laughing, she never realizes just how funny she is. Now I will preface this incident by saying that Mary is a nighthawk. She stays up pretty late considering she has to get up early in the morning for work and if not work, most likely she’s dashing out bright and early to catch a sale somewhere.

Last week I called her around 9:30 pm, as this is usually a good time to get her because she is finished work and the stores are closed by then. The phone rang a bit too long and her husband answered (as usual) and he said he’d go get her to the phone. I waited and waited and finally, he came back and said, “She’s out like a light, I can’t get her up.” Okay, I thought, she must be really  bushed, I’ll call back tomorrow morning (Saturday). I called at 9:15am and of course, no answer, because she had already gone shopping again no doubt. I finally got a hold of her the other night. We talked and caught up and she always fills me in on her latest bargain purchases and on her many bus tour day trips on shopping excursions to some outlet mall.

Halfway through our conversation, Mary says to me, “Deb, I think I’m going senile.” Now Mary is in her mid-late sixties and I think far from going senile but I said, “Now what Mar?” She continued by telling me that sometimes she does things she doesn’t remember or why she did them. I asked her if there was a specific incident she was referring to and she replied, “Deb, I’ve been sleeping like a lamb, I just pass out cold in my chair and sometimes I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and find a potato chip still in my mouth.” I burst out laughing then questioned her as to what’s up with that? She proceeded to tell me that she takes her cholesterol medication but she found that by accident, she was taking, – client -Jasmine’s, Tamadol by mistake — for days!

The ‘client’ happens to be her dog! Her weary, old dog has meds for pain and sleeping. Before I voiced my concern, I was hysterical laughing. I said, “Mar, are you kidding me?” She responded with, “Woof,” and we both laughed together. I then asked her if by any chance, did that happen last week when I called at 9:30 and she was out cold, and of course it was. I knew that just wasn’t usual for Mary.

My sweet friend cracks me up constantly with her non-chalant dialogue and her serious intent when telling me stories without realizing how humorous she is before I point it out to her. I pointed out to her that she needs to read the medication labels carefully and NOT keep hers with dogs! I tried to quell her thoughts on senility and suggested that she write things down and pay more heed and slow down.

We continued our chat, had some more laughs and she mentioned that she missed taking those pills because she had slept so well. I reprimanded her, telling her to promise she won’t be taking them again and she promised she wouldn’t and she meant it, but I couldn’t help but wonder how her poor doggie had suffered without her pills while Mary enjoyed the ride. The funny thing was that it took Mary four days to realize and thankful that in return, she gave nothing to the dog instead of giving her cholesterol pills.

This is typical Mary. She will tell me a story in true seriousness and concern and not until I laugh and tell her how hilarious she is, does she see how comical she really is.

God Bless You Mary!

Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Rules for Writing

 

 

In his book Bagombo Snuff Box, the famous post-war American novelist Kurt Vonnegut listed these eight rules for writing short fiction:

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.

2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.

3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.

4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.

5. Start as close to the end as possible.

6. Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.

7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.

8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

I found this article on Bookbaby and it was posted by Chris Robley.

How many of us break the writing rules?

 

 

Wisdom and Aging

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Brittle bones and silvered hair,

Display time’s imprints of life and wear.

Knowledge accrued, from life sublime,

Instilled wisdoms from remnants of time.

The heart’s handbag, complete with joy and scar,

Becomes a placeholder for love present and far.

Compassion still with us, tucked in our heart,

Memories we carry, some banished, some marred.

Does satisfaction of the past emanate without ruin,

Or sporting frown lines from hurtful wounds?

Roads we’ve travelled become etched in our mark,

How well we’ll be remembered, when our souls have gone dark.

 

© D.G. Kaye – 2013