Courtney Wendleton's Blog, page 21
November 22, 2016
#Upcoming #Sales
November 24-27th
Amily Trisdent is 17, looking forward to graduation but has a problem. Her whole family are wolves…except her. For some reason she has not been able to shift, but she has all the other abilities of a werewolf. Her senses are superior to Morts, but that’s it. Then one day everything changes. She is not a member of the pack, she faces problems with the pack leader, and new rogues come to town to throw their own chaos to the mix. Amily is not sure if she can handle everything she has to do.
Love & Drugs $0.99
November 28-December 3rd
Magdalene is a senior in college, preparing for a trip to Europe and finally got the girl of her dreams. She has a perfect job working for a flower shop (that isn’t your typical flower shop) and not a care in the world. But Magdalene has a couple of pretty big secrets, that she wants to keep. However, the most dangerous of secrets walks in on the first day of school.
Her ex-boyfriend is back in town and ready to violate his restraining order, as well as mess with her job. So she calls in her favor to The Family, and all hell ensues. In the end only one will survive, but who is going down?
Barnes & Noble is Back With a $50 Nook Tablet
From Techcrunch and Brian Heater:
“Barnes & Noble spent a number of years going toe to toe with Amazon in the e-reader market and actually produced some pretty nice devices in the process. The last few years, however, have been pretty meager for the bookseller as far as hardware goes, with most of its announcements revolving around reading tablets co-branded with Samsung’s Galaxy Tab stamp.
View original post 50 more words
November 19, 2016
Advertise Your Book
A Writer’s Path is open for authors to advertise their books. I’m also accepting advertisements on The Book Review Directory and All Romance Reads.
I’m an author, and I know firsthand how difficult it can be to get the word out about your book. If you’re frustrated with your book sales, consider advertising here.
For those of you who are authors, indie or traditionally published, there is an option to advertise your book here on this website. There are several placements, including the sidebar book cover images that you see on either side of this post.
For more information, check out the advertising info page.
Writers: Judge Yourself by Your Own Standards
‘Comparisonitis’ is the most infectious disease in the writer community. Can you blame us? When John’s book has 100 five-star reviews and Jane has written six books this year and Joe has landed a major publishing deal, it’s difficult not to feel jealous and shame yourself for what you are/aren’t accomplishing.
Here’s your gentle reminder to CUT. IT. OUT.
As I’m writing this post, we’re halfway through NaNoWriMo 2016. National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is an online challenge where writers attempt to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Some writers meet this goal in 24 hours (seriously — here’s proof), while others struggle to write 1,000 words over the entire month. NaNoWriMo is a great way to kickstart your writing project and meet new writer friends … but it’s also a vehicle for self-doubt. As you watch your ‘Buddies’ word counts climb, it can spur you to work harder or…
View original post 637 more words
3 Tips For Surviving a Writing Marathon
by Kelsie Engen
Let’s face it, the writer’s life is unusually tough on our bodies. We struggle with our plot and characters so much and so often–usually at odd times of the day–so that we sometimes wake up more exhausted than when we went to bed. Then there’s the carpal tunnel you get from typing, the butt-in-chair syndrome from sitting too long, the weight gained from too many writing snacks, I mean rewards for writing, and the list goes on. Can I get an amen?
So how do we avoid this? How do we enjoy the writer’s life without these pesky health complications?
View original post 618 more words
WorldBuilding: Naming Techniques and Philosophies
by Whitney Carter
Last week at my Saturday writer’s group, we had a discussion about character names. One of our people is taking her first crack at fantasy, and one of the questions I had for her was whether or not she intended to change the plain Jane names she was using in her drafts. She was, she said, but was unsure of how to go about choosing fantasy names. This lead to a discussion on the different techniques for choosing character names, and how consistency within each universe is important.
View original post 691 more words
November 16, 2016
Death to all #PlotBunnies
It is #NaNoWriMo, and all of a sudden these evil little Plot Bunnies are attacking me. In the past 16 days I have started not one, but THREE new stories on top of the 13 I have already been working on! Yes, the other day I finished one that I have been working on for the better part of two years but still! The total is now 15 and I have a feeling it is not going to get smaller, but grow before the month is over.
November 15, 2016
Satan’s Lamentation
Watch and Listen to a Reading of the Poem.
“I give up,” – said Beelzebub, vexed with frustration,
his face, more livid than the fire, burning
in numerous corridors leading to
the great hall, where he sat, flushed, on his lavish throne!
A wary whisper of bewilderment
rose and ebbed through the ranks of his puzzled lieutenants,
as they looked on their lord, who hid his face
behind the licking flames of his hairy palms.
They wondered what ailed their master so vividly
but were too afraid to ask, lest his wrath
send the questioner with a corrupt scheme to earth,
‘O boy, O boy, doomed would be he on whom
such a curse might fall’, they all thought in unison,
for their schemes of late had grown less and less
sinister for human taste, almost angelic
compared to the latter’s own, almost fair!
Soon the tension inside that…
View original post 245 more words
November 13, 2016
4 Ways to Pre-plan Your NaNoWriMo Story
by Jacqui Murray
Few people can sit down and start writing. Most of us hem and haw as we mentally walk through how to get from introduction to conclusion. It’s called ‘prewriting’ and everyone does it. What differs is the method–what best suits our communication style?
Here are four approaches I’ve seen work for writer friends:
View original post 559 more words
November 11, 2016
The Loss of a Great Grandfather (A Short Story)
Those damn bagpipes haunt my dreams, every single night. While the horned version is heard throughout the town every afternoon at seventeen hundred hours. That tune signals the end of the day and that the fallen have returned home. It has to be the saddest song in the world, in the history of music.
A the song blasts through my hearing, I can see him. Thin and frail, his tattered uniform resting, folded neatly on his chest, my family had opted to put him in a white t shirt and overalls for the great-grandchildren to recognize him. The funeral home tried their best to put a soft smile on his face, but it did not turn out quite right. His full head of white hair was combed perfectly to represent the gentleman he was, even if it was against Army regulation length.
I haven’t felt much of anything since the day my dad received the phone call from the hospital telling us that my great-grandpa had past away. I remember having to ask two or three times for him to repeat the message, because I couldn’t believe it. I had just seen him two days before and he was fine. Well maybe not that fine, he did say something about great-grandma being there next to me and the best friend he lost in the war was looking out the window saying something about “the U-boat’s about ready Jackson.” He was having one of his bad days, but not so bad that he didn’t recognize me. I was grateful for that moment.
At the funeral I did okay up to the point of the graveside service. Beautiful summer day, what would have been his 88th birthday, and the nameless preacher prattled his “ashes to ashes” speech that I didn’t listen to…or don’t remember listening to. My eyes were glued to the dark brown casket draped in the red, white and blue flag. I couldn’t get my mind to move past the thought that this man had survived D-day at Gold Beach, shrapnel from enemy fire and the loss of his childhood sweetheart, to be brought down by the flu.
Again all was fine until they played that blasted song and three men, just three men, pulled their trigger seven times. Even though they aimed for the open sky, each shot was a fresh wound in my heart. My body trembled with every bang, until I couldn’t take anymore and had to walk away. They presented my great-uncle, the jerk of the family who hadn’t seen him in the five years before his death, with his flag. And just like that, my great-grandpa’s life was officially over. The family scattered like roaches in the light of a fridge before he was even lowered into the ground.
Now no one ever talks about him. What he did for his country or family. If it wasn’t for pictures and fading memories, no one would know he even existed.
20 years later and I’m at my husband’s funeral. Staring at an almost exact casket and mentally preparing for the seven gunmen. I learned my lesson the first time around, always get seven. Our big military family surrounds me on all sides as the preacher gives the almost identical speech I don’t remember from back then. The only difference I see is great-grandpa was surrounded by Army uniforms, now I am in a sea of Marine blues.
